We went around the room and talked about why we are interested in open source, including:

• community participation
• financial cost
• ease of use
• scalability
• customization
• ethical benefits toward community
• use in academia
• sustainability
• better crm and cms tools

Question:
If someone distributes open source software, who does the support?

Answer:
That’s one of the problems with open source, there is no way to ensure support for every product. However, large products have huge support communities, and there are companies popping up recently to provide support for open source at a charge.

Question:
What is Drupal?

Answer:
Drupal is a content management system with a huge community around it. More information is available at drupal.org.

Question:
Is there a site that compares open source cms tools?

Answer:
Yes! Social Source Commons, Opensourcecms.com and cmsmatrix.org

Question:
Why do people feel that choosing open source software is a philosophical decision?

Answer:
Support for community. Open standards. Global community. Best practices come from a multitude of voices.

Question:
Is there an open source solution to targeted email advocacy?

Answer:
Not yet. Most proprietary solutions are using CapWiz, which is also proprietary.

Question:
Is there an open source solution to virtualization?

Answer:
Virtual Box

Question:
Why does open source have such poor documentation?

Answer:
There is a misconception that in order to contribute to the open source movement, you have to be a developer, but in fact, they need writers, marketers, and especially people who can translate between geek and English.

Question:
Is the Asterisk phone system time consuming?

Answer:
Yes it is, but once you’ve got it up and running, it works very well for call centers or automated phone systems. And there are companies that provide paid support, so you have a backup if something goes wrong.

Question:
Is there an open source version of Skype?

Answer:
There is OpenWengo, but it’s not very stable yet.

Question:
How do you pick an open source solution?

Answer:
Play with it, read the NOSI Primer, and get to know the community and make sure you like them.

Community ownership of software is also in itself consonant with the missions of many nonprofit organizations, whose role is in strengthening community. By using tools that are owned by everyone, you know that you aren’t building your work in a way that depends on or benefits any one corporation or institution, but building your work in a way that benefits everyone.

This is a well written and well researched opus that will benefit the nonprofit community hugely in the years to come. Bravo!

Cross-posted to Freedom for IP