Sun, Jun 11, 2006
Why Nonprofits (and Foundations) Should Care About Open Source
#
Why should nonprofit organizations care about OpenSource? I've had an
ongoing conversation about this with KatrinVerclas for a while now,
and I thought it would be worth outlining the arguments here. I
actually think philanthropic organizations should care a lot more
about OpenSource than nonprofits, and I'll explain why below. (KOD)
Forget, for a moment, the question of whether nonprofits should be
investing in technology or what the long-term return on investment
might be. That question is a bit of a red herring, because a lot of
nonprofits have fundamental problems (poor management,
under-resourced, etc.) that can't be resolved with technology. (KOE)
Instead, assume that there are specific needs that can be addressed by
technology. The question is, what do nonprofit organizations need to
leverage that technology? They need two things: (KOF)
- The tools themselves (KOG)
- Capacity -- the ability to install, maintain, and use the tools (KOH)
If there's an affordable tool that meets your needs, and if you have
the capacity to install, maintain, and use it, then it doesn't matter
whether the tool is proprietary or OpenSource. Use it. (KOI)
If there's no tool that meets your exact needs, then that tool becomes
a candidate for fundraising, and the conversation likely shifts from
the nonprofit itself to foundations. If you're a foundation and if
you're going to invest in the creation of a tool, there are all the
reasons in the world to invest in OpenSource. (KOJ)
- You get more for your money, because others can invest in the same
codebase as well, and you can use what you develop across your
entire portfolio. This is especially true if you're investing in a
project that already exists. (KOK)
- You decrease the likelihood of lock-in. This is a bit misleading,
as the cost of switching technology is not necessarily lower if your
software is OpenSource. However, you avoid the problem of legacy,
unsupported software where the supporting company disappears,
because the source code is always available. (KOL)
Most importantly, as a foundation (or nonprofit), you're more likely
to be skilled at connecting people than you are at developing
software. And this is exactly what developers need to build better
tools -- a greater understanding of their users. Commercial companies
aren't likely to care about a market unless it is mature, and the
needs of most nonprofits don't fall into that category. But
OpenSource developers will care. Many OpenSource developers share the
same underlying "do good" attitude that folks in the nonprofit world
have, and they're more than happy to improve their tools for the
nonprofit community. By focusing on connecting with a pre-existing
software development community that is already predisposed to work for
the social good, you are likely to get better tools sooner than you
might from proprietary software companies. (KOM)
More importantly, the process of connecting has a powerful
side-effect: It helps build organizational capacity. When you connect
your community to developers, you're also connecting your community to
each other. There will be some who will feed off the knowledge of
developers, and that's critical. Even more critical is what your
community will absorb from each other. People are far more likely to
learn from their peers -- those they perceive are as lost as they are
-- then they are from authority figures. (KON)
/forbenefit |
Posted at 8:57pm
EEK Speaks
A blog about collaboration, community-building, and the various
goings-on at Blue Oxen
Associates, with occasional digressions on food and other vital
matters.
Subscribe
Comments
Comments disabled until future notice. If you'd like to contact me, use my i-name (=eekim).