David Wilcox has done a terrific job of summarizing this conversation thread recently on the UK Circuit Riders list, "Is Open Source Software Fair Trade for Nonprofits?"
Are there ethical reasons for voluntary and community organisations to consider using Free and Open Source Software? Matthew Edmonson, who works for the UK Government-funded Open IT Up project, seemed to suggest so when speaking at the recent conference for circuit riders, who provide tech support to nonprofits. Matthew likened using proprietory software to preferring Nescafe when Fair trade coffee is available, and refers on his blog approvingly to a report of the phrase "increased effort for improved ethics". Matthew's main points at the conference were:
- FOSS has equivalences to Fair Trade
- FOSS is already widely used and should not be 'boxed off' as separate
- FOSS has much to offer the VCS (voluntary and community sector)
- FOSS has much to offer the CR (circuit rider)
David also points over to an alternative approach/experiment that Miles Maier is up to called The Great (almost free) Web Office Experiment. Miles and I have emailed and he might help me ween myself from the blanket of comfort that is Outlook. I'm looking forward to following this bit of action learning!
Comments