Isn’t this the very real danger of the nonprofit community clinging too firmly to proprietary services and technologies? If nonprofits work together to build open-source alternatives to things like Causes, then we’re not beholden to market demands.
I definitely agree with you but would caution that it is unrealistic to expect all organizations at all levels/sizes will only use open source alternatives for everything they do. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in, at least not today. I think that until we live in an entirely open source arena where organizations could be expected to only use tools, software, applications, etc. that they can “control” (meaning hosting, etc.) then we need to discuss some of the ideas about making a positive relationship between those using the technologies and those developing them.
COMMENTS
BY Elliot Harmon
ON November 6, 2009 01:44 PM
Hey Amy,
Isn’t this the very real danger of the nonprofit community clinging too firmly to proprietary services and technologies? If nonprofits work together to build open-source alternatives to things like Causes, then we’re not beholden to market demands.
Cheers,
Elliot
BY Amy Sample Ward
ON November 9, 2009 02:43 AM
Thanks for your comment, Elliot!
I definitely agree with you but would caution that it is unrealistic to expect all organizations at all levels/sizes will only use open source alternatives for everything they do. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in, at least not today. I think that until we live in an entirely open source arena where organizations could be expected to only use tools, software, applications, etc. that they can “control” (meaning hosting, etc.) then we need to discuss some of the ideas about making a positive relationship between those using the technologies and those developing them.
Thanks again for joining in!