shared API for double-entry accounting, treating it as a 'math' library.

[Marc Paré]

Hi Daniel et al,

I am just catching up on the discussion. While I can't really comment on 
the technical aspects of the API, I would like to chime in on some of 
the points you raise.

I also agree that we need to be sensitive from where accountants are 
coming; they are being taught in schools (whether high 
school/college/university levels) using tools that are thought of as 
being the most appropriate for their regions.

Where I am hoping this project will go, is that somewhere along our 
concerted efforts to build our NPO accounting tool, that we will 
ultimately look at establishing a standard format with an eye on having 
it adopted as a universal file format for all others to adopt and help 
maintain. Of course it would have to be an opensourced format,  for 
which, if we are to consider it, already limits us -- XML, etc. ...

At this point, now that the project has legs I also agree with Daniel 
that we should try to interest some international association that could 
be interested in maintaining the standard as an open standard as well as 
assure longevity to the format; or at least, that is what Daniel is 
suggesting. I for one put a lot of stock in the OASIS and its series of 
opendocument formats. As OASIS has support from many large opensource 
and NPO's, to me, would prove to our advantage to try to interest them 
in this particular project to see if they would be interested in helping 
document and adopt whichever format we decide on standardizing. If this 
were possible, we would a solid file format base to work from, and, 
protection from the OASIS group of the longevity of the file format.

In short, I believe that at this point, we should be considering the 
assurance of the protection, longevity, standardization of whichever 
file format this project will adopt. Also consider if, whoever will 
champion this file format will have enough resources and industry 
partners to defend the format from any type of patent action assault. 
IMO, if we were to partner up with a group that specializes in 
opensource file formats such as the OASIS group, then, the file format 
will gain help from a group that is supported by many opensource and 
industry leaders, and also a group renowned for meticulous documentation 
of formats with the input of its stakeholder partners. Partnering with 
such groups will make for a more stable and dependable file format that 
could evolve in a more concerted effort by all of its stakeholders.

Cheers,

Marc

[Disclaimer: I am part of the LibreOffice project -- marketing]

Le 2013-11-15 13:56, Daniel Pocock a écrit :
> It is also worth considering some other angles:
>
> - Somebody goes to school to learn book-keeping or accounting, usually
> before they really know whether they will work for a small business, a
> fund or NPO or whatever.  What system does the school teach with?  What
> can they install at home to practice and improve their skills?  Which
> free software projects could try to fill this gap?  Getting in at the
> education stage is a very powerful way to raise the profile of free
> software for financial purposes across the board.
>
> - as mentioned in my other email, how can products interact, e.g. using
> cXML or something else to exchange invoices?
>
> - internationalization: many products have a focus on their local
> market, e.g. Postbooks is strong for the US and European users have to
> set up VAT codes manually.  Commercial vendors (e.g. Quickbooks) are
> putting out products that work out of the box for local conditions (e.g.
> automatically loading VAT codes in the UK, Australia, Canada and various
> other places).  It is not really a question of language and date
> formats, rather, it is about building up a collection of static data
> such as tax rates and currency symbols.  Can this type of data be
> gathered into a shared database that can be leveraged by all of the free
> software solutions who want to provide plug-and-play support for
> locales?  It would be silly for every free project to try and duplicate
> this themselves.
>
> - industry associations: the financial profession and the NPO sector
> have various industry associations, could they be encouraged to
> participate in this effort, maybe forming an advisory board?  Could this
> even help to find funding opportunities?
>
> - what we use ourselves: many free software developers and enthusiasts
> are self-employed.  Many of us tend to patch and improve the software
> that we use ourselves every day and so we get to know if very well.  The
> same is true for financial software: if we can rally a lot of people
> around a single product or a small group of products that they can use
> for themselves, they will end up promoting those to other professionals
> and businesses as well and it will gain further momentum.  If the
> products in this pool are flexible and scalable enough then it meets a
> diverse range of business requirements and that means more free software
> enthusiasts are employed more of the time and there is a nice snowball
> effect.


-- 
Marc Paré
Marc at MarcPare.com
http://www.parEntreprise.com
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