Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 11, 2015

“Your secure software is open source: doesn’t that make it less secure?” We strongly believe not only that open source is compatible with digital security, but that it’s also essential for it. It helps establish that the safe has no design flaws or a second “back door” combination other than my own chosen combination that opens the safe. The analogy of the strong safe with an open design is directly applicable to secure software design.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 4, 2011

There are a myriad of options, open source options are among the most popular, possibly the most popular. On the proprietary side, there are a number of options, and they fall into three categories: Single-source proprietary custom CMS (from one web shop, or web host). And there are open source options that can do much of the same work for much less money. CMS Nonprofit Tech Open Source Web Tools blackbaud convio commonground drupal plone sharepoint wordpress

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 4, 2014

Adopting an open source philosophy has proven to be quite effective for us at Benetech in our work furthering technology-for-good. I recently had the opportunity to give an interview for Red Hat’s online magazine, Opensource.com , and discuss Benetech’s culture of “open.” Ultimately, we believe that open source is more about transparency and innovation than about releasing software. The open source methodology also helps stimulate innovation.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Jerry and I had a great conversation about open sourcing of agricultural scientific models, such as those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their climate change reports. When we met, he was therefore especially interested in hearing about Benetech’s perspective on issues related to converting software to open source. agriculture CIMSANS climate change CSR food security Gerald Nelson open data open source SocialCoding4Good

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Since I wrote my post on “Open Source vs. Proprietary&# last week, and especially after Thomas Taylor’s very apt comment that the battle is not over in many corners, I decided that, well, what the heck, it was a good time to write a series about open source software options, and their comparisons to proprietary, in 2011, more than 12 years after this whole thing started. Comparisons of open source vs. proprietary development environments (i.e.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 16, 2011

Because of this, the deck has always been stacked against open source tools in this arena. Both NTEN and Idealware are the best sources for information about the range of options for this toolset – that’s out of scope for this post. However, Salesforce in particular has a leg up that most other proprietary tools don’t have, because of their open APIs and their incredibly robust development platform.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 19, 2011

This epic battle between Open Source software (or Free software) and proprietary software is coming to a close. Speaking of Apple and FOSS, Apple’s OS X and iOS are based on the BSD operating system – another open source *NIX that has been around for a while. This is both made possible by open source software, and is completely proprietary. Open source software has won. Open Source Operating Systems cloudcomputing opensource

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 14, 2011

The browser wars between proprietary and open source browsers have changed in some ways from the days that it was simply Internet Explorer vs. Netscape. This drop has been primarily, but not exclusively due to the open source browser, Firefox. On the open source side, Firefox is certainly the leader, with a bit less than 30% of the market. Chrome, which is sort of an open source browser, is now getting around 14% of the market.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 7, 2011

On the open source side, the projects that stand out are GIMP (a Photoshop replacement) and Inkscape (a vector graphics program – like Illustrator). I’ll leave it to the graphics professionals to say for sure, but they are both worth a look if you don’t want to plunk down hundreds of $ for Photoshop and Illustrator, and/or you like to work with open source tools. On the open source side, one program you must know about is VLC by VideoLAN.

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NTEN

MARCH 26, 2014

The internet is powered by open source technology—exciting software that's built collaboratively from the bottom-up. Open source is meant to be free and equal, but then why do men continue to dominate open source sites like Wikipedia? Though the whole point of open source technology is that it’s made stronger and better through collaboration, actually figuring out how to use the technology is not an equal playing field. Sarah Mirk.

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3rd Sector Labs

DECEMBER 1, 2013

We talk a lot about Open Source technology (and we use it quite extensively too) so it might make sense for us to take a moment and explain why we are such advocates. Affordability – Open Source is free of licensing fees. Proven – Open Source platforms like Drupal, WordPress, CiviCRM, etc., Robust – We aren’t big fans of this overblown word, but in the case of Open Source it works.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 1, 2009

It comes out of Kirrily Robert’s keynote at OSCON about women and open source. of open source communities. Some open source communities are more diverse than others. In her keynote, Kirrily talks about two open source projects, Archive of Our Own and Dreamwidth that have a majority of women involved, which is rather unusual. Kirrily has a set of really good guidelines for open source communities: Recruit diversity.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 1, 2009

It comes out of Kirrily Robert’s keynote at OSCON about women and open source. of open source communities. Some open source communities are more diverse than others. In her blog post, Kirrily talks about two open source projects, Archive of Our Own and Dreamwidth that have a majority of women involved, which is rather unusual. Kirrily has a set of really good guidelines for open source communities: Recruit diversity.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology SaaS vs. Open Source September 24, 2008 I just finished writing a post for the Idealware blog about choosing SaaS vs. Open source. I said in that post: At one level, whether or not the software underneath the SaaS is open source is not relevant. SaaS is not, by definition either proprietary or open source.

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Forum One

MAY 12, 2021

As we work primarily with open source CMS platforms, such as Drupal and WordPress, our tool is effective in its ability to integrate within the CMS as well as be flexible for organization-specific needs.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 7, 2011

I’ve been using this tool since it actually was StarOffice, more than 10 years ago, when it was first open sourced by Sun in 2000. Nonprofit Tech Open Source nptechI recently wrote a blog entry about LibreOffice (LO), the fork of OpenOffice.org (OOo) that came after the acquisition of Sun (the old holder/maintainer of OOo) by Oracle. For the purposes of this blog entry, at this moment in time (early 2011,) LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org are the same.

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NTEN

JUNE 17, 2014

What does this mean when weighing your open source options? Change Management Leadership Open Source Open Source tech leadership Paul Keogan. Founder and Principal. BackOffice Thinking. A new core technology decision is not just about choice; it's about ownership. You know your organization needs to make a core technology change.

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Tech Soup Blog

JANUARY 26, 2015

One of the best ways to gauge whether open source would work for your organization is to look at some actual examples. To read about how open-source software might benefit your nonprofit or public library, check out part one of this series. In that spirit, here are some leading open-source solutions in three categories relevant to nonprofits: CRM. Making the Right Decision About Open-Source Software.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 12, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Open Source Feminism? She’s got some great video blogging, including a short one on “ open source feminism.&# Although women were only 25% of the Penguin Day attendees, that’s actually pretty darned good for open source related events.

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Tech Soup Blog

JANUARY 22, 2015

For this reason, nonprofits are good candidates for open-source software (OSS), which can offer the functionality they need, without the glitz, glamor, and high price point of commercial systems. The Ponemon Institute's recent "Open Source Collaboration Study" revealed that 74 percent of IT professionals think OSS offers better continuity and control than closed-source software. Of course, many of these points are open to interpretation.

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NTEN

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Debunking the myths of contributing to open source, one frequently asked question at a time. For the last 15 years or so, we’ve seen consistent growth in nonprofits’ appreciation for how open source tools can support their goals for online engagement. Community drupal Leadership Open Source Sean Larkin. CEO and Co-Owner. ThinkShout.

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NTEN

MARCH 26, 2014

In the true spirit of collaboration, NTC attendees collectively stewarded an ad hoc open source society. Craig Sinclair reflects on his experience, why he supports the open source movement, and shares examples of open venues for experimentation. Following his Ignite presentation at the 14NTC, Craig Sinclair reflects on the ad hoc open source society that formed, and open venues start experimenting. Craig Sinclair. Digital Media Manager.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 13, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Movable Type goes Open Source December 13, 2007 This is old news, sort of. A ways back, Six Apart promised that it would open source MovableType , their flagship software product, and the software that underlies their TypePad service. They are really putting their money where their mouth is, in terms of working toward more openness.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 26, 2009

Mpower Open, the vendor who took their high-end CRM/DMS product, MPX , open source last year, has adopted a new name, Orange Leap. Orange Leap is possibly going for what is now often called the “ Open Core &# business model, although it’s not entirely clear. Both new products are based in Java, and are going to be released as open source. Tags: opensource CRM Open Source Nonprofit Tech DMS

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 19, 2008

One question that will inevitably be asked: can free and open source software save organizations money? Open source software is both free as in “beer&# as well as free as in “kittens.&# Nonprofit organizations that did migrations to open source software from proprietary packages with large license fees during relatively fat economic times are reaping the benefits of that change now, and are in good shape to weather the storm.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 29, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Gender, Race and Open Source June 29, 2007 My session on Free and Open Source software and the US Social Forum went great yesterday. There were a very wide range of people there, from folks who didn’t know a whole lot about open source, to those who were developing open source apps.

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Beth Kanter

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Paul Connolly, who has been a guest blogger on this blog before , covered the session on Open Source Strategic Planning. In 2009, the foundation began by harvesting almost a thousand proposals for future directions from community members through online crowd-sourcing. Note from Beth: Since the concept of working in Networks is can be hard to explain to newcomers, learning from case studies, stories, and examples can be illuminating.

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NTEN

JUNE 8, 2021

NTEN is proud to be the new steward of The Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest , elevating and celebrating open source development for social impact work. The Pizzigati Prize honors the brief life of Tony Pizzigati, an early advocate of open source computing.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 21, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Free and Open Source Tool #16: CiviCRM April 21, 2008 In honor of the webinar that is happening in a couple of weeks, I figured I’d talk a bit about CiviCRM. CiviCRM is a nonprofit-focused open source tool, centered around membership, fundraising, events and such.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 12, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Open Source CRMs – people like them? and although the sample sizes were small, and not representative of the nonprofit sector as a whole, the people surveyed seemed to like the open source tools available. There were 6 open source (or sort of open source) tools that showed up on this survey.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 27, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Free and Open Source tool #14: SugarCRM March 27, 2008 Since I’ve been covering CRMs for the webinar today, I figured I’d switch categories on my free and open source software list.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 9, 2008

This is old-ish news, but the acquisition of companies behind open source software by big behemoths continues with the acquisition of Jabber by Cisco. He says: “Red Hat and other open-source companies, in other words, are focused on the future, because that’s what their model requires in order to earn renewals from customers. Things might be shifting, though, due to both open source and SaaS as catalysts for change.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 3, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Free and open source tool #1: Thunderbird January 3, 2008 Before the holidays, I promised that I’d do 100 posts this year on free and open source tools. Generally, Thunderbird falls into the category of free and open source software that “just works.&#

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NTEN

JANUARY 11, 2012

The advent of HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, and other modern web technologies has paved the way for new, open source, cross-platform compliant mapping technologies to develop stylish and interactive maps. geographic information systems GIS mapping nptech nten online mapping Open Source IT StaffSean Larkin. Partner. ThinkShout.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 18, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology The power of open source VOIP December 18, 2007 Today seems to be Asterisk day. Asterisk is the open source PBX application that works by using VOIP.

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Gyrus

JANUARY 7, 2022

Open-source training management system is the need of every professional space to survive and sustain in a competitive environment. Learn how Gyrus Systems delivers it efficiently to its clients

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 16, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology So where is open source in the nptech ecosystem? January 16, 2008 I’ve had a few interesting things happen lately which is making me wonder about what’s happening with open source, and the perceptions of open source in the nonprofit sector.

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NTEN

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Based on my informal assessment of attitudes and interest in the NTEN community about open source software, I think there's a significant and growing number of folks and organizations who are either interested in, already using, or even evangelizing open source solutions. Some folks may not have gotten up to speed on more recent developments, however -- and might be relying on "stale data" about open source tools: "Not ready for prime time."

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 14, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Free and open source tool #15: MPower Open CRM April 14, 2008 I am so far behind, it’s not funny. My goal is to catch up by the end of this month, so that I’ll still be on track to make it to 100 free and open source tools by December. And, it’s got completely open APIs.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 14, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology The “Open Source Software is Free&# myth July 14, 2008 I had a startling realization a few days ago. No credible nonprofit technology open source advocate has ever suggested that open source software was free to implement. No one would think that anyone thought that implementing open source software was without cost.

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