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Plug and Play Open Source
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When I talk to people about open source solutions, I often get what I like to call the "command line" reaction: Everything must require the command line. Everything must be hard. Apparently, everything must be scary.

With modern open source distributions, this does not have to be the case, as Steve Wright from the salesforce.com/foundation points out.

[Quoted with permission]
>I send out a version of this email anytime some one mentions open
>source. Here is my latest Open Source story.
>
>In a total of 3 hours I sat down with a Community Technology Center
>(CTC) lab manager who had no previous experience with Linux and
>installed a Mandrake Linux OS server which included: 1) Apache - Web
>Server 2) Mysql - Database 3) PHP - ASP like programming language that
>enables interactivity on your website. There are several web portal
>systems that are being developed for on-line communities that use this
>language. You do not need to know any MySQL or PHP to install these
>portals and they provide a community web interface that allows for
>individual logins, discussion groups, newsletter-like functionality.
>Image upload/viewing. Content creation with NO HTML knowledge
>necessary. The installation requires some nerdability but mostly it
>requires the desire IO MAKE It happen. Check out
>http://www.postnuke.com [2]. 4) SAMBA - Windows networking server
>5) NetaTalk - Appletalk server
>
>EVERYTHING worked "out of the box." When I left this machine was
>serving webpages AND acting as a cross-platform Intranet server. The
>only cost involved was the machine and the $30 for the Mandrake CD's
>(which can be downloaded or copied for free.)
>
>Steve Wright
>Program Director
>Salesforce.com/foundation

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How to Make Plug & Play Open Source Work
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I drew some conclusions from Steve's experience.

Mentoring
~~~~~~~~~
A lot of technology adoption can be driven by mentoring. Sitting down with someone and helping them install software via "shoulder to shoulder" training is a strong model. A good question to ask yourself as a nonprofit is whether you are willing to be mentored, or would rather pay for the luxury of not thinking about technology by hiring a consultant.

Committment
~~~~~~~~~~~
I would guess that the long term success of Steve's effort is 100 percent dependent on the committment of the CTC lab manager to figuring out how this stuff works. They have a great head start, however, since the open source tools Steve is using are no more difficult to use than networking a couple of PCs.

Consultants need to become familiar with open source options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If it really is this easy, perhaps we should be focusing on "shoulder to shoulder" training for nonprofit consultants so that they can have open source tools in their toolbox right next to IIS and Access. Given that it is apparently *that* easy, why is it that I haven't heard stories from the NPowers of the world about how they have sucessfully installed open source solutions? If they have tried to use open source tools and found them *not* to work in certain situations, these stories are equally important.

Open Source is not for everyone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am always very cautious in evangelizing open source too agressively. Steve was able to install the so
ftware simply and easily. BUT, what is the total cost of ownership (TCO) of this solution vs. others?
Will these agencies have the internal staff to support the server over the long term? Will Steve be ca
lled on every month to tweak some small feature of the servers that have been installed? Will Steve eve
ntually wish these people just stop calling? ;)

Hopefully, the TCO study that is being implemented by the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) will
answer some of these more strategic, long-term questions. If you want to participate/ contribute to the
in the NOSI TCO study, visit http://www.nosi.net/ [3] and join the email list.

A good list of OS software for nonprofits would be nice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe we need to convince the guys at http://www.freshmeat.net/ [4] to add "nonprofits" to their list of in
tended audiences. I've had discussions with the Foundary manager at http://www.sourceforge.net/ [5] about c
reating a nonprofit foundary and it seems to be around the corner (see the beta at http://nonprofit.fou [6]
ndries.sourceforge.net/).

There are also efforts to produce a CD of relevant software, though the various distributions (Mandrake
, Red Hat) seem to do a good job of putting it all in one place. Perhaps the next phase is to create an
.rpm that cuts down Steve's install time from 3 hours to 20 minutes (An .rpm is an 'installer' for Lin
ux systems that installs and configures software without user intervention).

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TAKE ACTION
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~ Teach yourself how to install Mandrake and and do some shoulder-to- shoulder training with an acciden
tal techie or nonprofit technology consultant.

~ Share a similar story by writing it up as a case study and posting it on the NOSI web site or email l
ist. Perhaps others will be inspired by and learn from your experience.

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REFERENCES
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http://www.nosi.net/ [3]
http://www.freshmeat.net/ [4]
http://nonprofit.foundries.sourceforge.net/ [7]
http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/ [8]
http://www.postnuke.com/ [9]
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ [10]

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Copyright (c) 2002 David Geilhufe Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found at http://www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.txt [11].
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Social Source Newletter July 2002 v1 #1] [12]