First Salon, a success!

The first NOSI Salon, held at the San Francisco Nonprofit Technology Center was a definite success! About 15 people of varied organizations and roles came out to talk to the me about what they think NOSI should be doing in the coming year or so. People were happy that NOSI is back, and we had a great, wide ranging conversation about the future of open source software in the nonprofit sector, and the kinds of ways that NOSI could help increase the awareness and use of FOSS in the sector. Unfortunately, our podcasting equipment was not up to the task (I should have done a bit of reading about microphones ahead of time - it's time to go find a omnidirectional mike.) But we do have pictures!

And here's a brief list of the kinds of things we talked about:- Can NOSI put together some set of 'canonical' apps that the np sector can use - apps that are tested, reviewed, and 'ready for prime time'?- Education is still important, for a variety of reasons, like what does it mean to use an open source project (Free software vs 1000 developers) and foundations still don't get it- What pain are we trying to address - outcome based efforts- The messaging about open source needs to be evolved including discussions of control of data, and technological destiny, to give people language to use, and have clear stories to tell- nonprofit technologists as our target audience- reconsider linux on the desktop as something to address - perhaps a campaign around Vista?- create economic models for use of FOSS in nonprofits- Case studies are a great idea - talk about failures and successes, and include small studies - what was a problem (can't get a printer to work) and how was it fixed- how to get nonprofit techies involved in FOSS projects?- compiling (via API or some other method) consultants, ASPs, etc.- How can NOSI help support ASPs for FOSS?- How can NOSI help with mentoring?- OSDL has a set of standards for desktop linux, and an initiative - how to get involved?We'll be using this, and other Salons and feedback, to put together our agenda for 2007. Stay tuned!