Conclusions

Open Source Software is rapidly developing, and new alternatives for nonprofit organizations are emerging and maturing. We have described here the types of software now available to nonprofits, and how they are being implemented it in their organizations.

As we have articulated, there are many places where OSS is not as mature or ready for use in nonprofits as older proprietary applications. But it is our opinion that in the next 2-5 years, the maturity, stability and ease of use of OSS will rival, if not exceed that of standard proprietary solutions.

This will not happen by accident. In a paper recently published by the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network, Jonathan Peizer argued that to realize the full promise of OSS in nonprofits, “a proactive, well thought out strategy by a collaborative of progressive funders, developers and technology service providers” is required. (http://www.uploads.nten.org/gems/RealizingthePromiseofOpenSou.pdf)

And that is also why we at the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) are engaged in a series of activities to better educate the community. These activities include the NOSI open source café, a publication of additional case studies on our website, the development of a nonprofit-focused OSS mailing lists, in addition to dissemination of documents like this primer.

We hope that this introduction to the potential of OSS within nonprofit organizations will make it possible for you to participate in this movement, whether it be through NOSI, or other organizations of which you are a part. Thanks to the power of collaboration, the full potential of open source software in the nonprofit sector is only beginning to be realized.

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Mailing Lists, Websites and IRC channels available for support of OSS

http://www.justlinux.com/

http://www.tldp.org/ - the Linux Documentation Project

http://www.linuxhelp.net/

http://www.linuxchix.org – multiple mailing lists

irc.us.freenode.net - many distribution specific channels, like #debian, #gentoo

mozilla.org – support for using mozilla

nosi-discussion@nosi.net - discussion of open source software

nosi-desktop@nosi.net - discussion of open source software for desktops

riders-tech@npogroups.org - circuit riders technology discussion

CTCNET (www.ctcnet.org) – A network of community technology centers serving urban and low-income areas

Free Geek CTC (www.freegeek.org) -developing a tech assistance project using OSS

Free SW Foundation (www.fsf.org) - advocates for free software, enforces GPL license

Gilbert Center (www.gilbert.org) -strong advocate of open source

Idealist.org (www.idealist.org) - online directory of nonprofit consultants

LINC Project (www.lincproject.org) - open source for low-income comm.

LSTech.Org (lstech.org) -A technology assistance provider serving legal assistance communities

Tactical Technology Collective (http://www.tacticaltech.org/) - an international organization working to bring technology (including OSS) to NGO sectors in developing countries

Media Jumpstart (www.mediajumpstart.org) -- tech nology collective for nonprofits employs OSS

NTEN (www.nten.org) – provides a directory of nonprofit consultants

One Northwest (www.onenw.org) – environmentally focused provider includes open source options

Organizers Collaborative (www.organizenow.net) -- promotes, creates open source tools for organizers

Open Source Application Foundation (www.osafoundation.org) -- nonprofit established to write open source software

Debian-NP (http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-nonprofit/) - A specific Linux distribution project for nonprofits

What is NOSI?

NOSI (http://nosi.net) is a collaboration of nonprofit technology service providers, consultants specializing in nonprofit support, and open source software developers working to facilitate greater adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) in the nonprofit/NGO sector. Information about

How can I become involved in NOSI?

NOSI currently has four opportunities for volunteer involvement or contributions:

First is our online collection of open source case studies. We welcome contributions from additional nonprofits who have used OSS, especially if your case study tries things that are not mentioned in any of the existing case studies on our web site. Secondly, we are looking for people to help maintain our online open source projects database (nonprofit-focused). Third, we are looking for folks who can help maintain our web and email infrastructure. Finally, people who are already making a significant contribution to NOSI or the world of nonprofit open source software may be invited to become involved in the NOSI steering committee.

NOSI currently runs three email lists:

nosi-discuss@nosi.net -- general discussion, questions on nonprofit OSS issues

nosi-announce@nosi.net -- low volume announcements of OSS issues

nosi-desktop@nosi.net – general discussion on OSS options for the desktop