Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

This isn’t actually, nptech news, per se, but it’s good news for nonprofits: Google, along with other partners, such as T-Mobile, Qualcomm, and others, have created an alliance called the Open Handset Alliance, and a phone operating system called Android, which will put open source software on mobile phones. This is big. This means that anyone can hack their phones - and a raft of developers can create really interesting kinds of software for phones. The SDK will be available later this month.

Of course, the bottom line is that this makes it more likely that Google can get their ad platform onto phones. But they seem to realize that the key to their success is being open, and they are doing their best to move that into as many places as possible. And just like OpenSocial was a great answer to Facebook, this is a great answer to the iPhone.

Why is this good news for nonprofits? Katrin over at MobileActive.org weighs in, and I agree:

So what does this mean for the ‘mobile for good’ field? We hope that this will spur development for more social applications and mashups as well as better distribution of these applications worldwide. For example, HiV Aids rapid information and testing services built on mobiles, climate and poluution monitoring applications, mobile information services that provide consumers with point-of-purchase environmental or other information services about products, mobile human rights monitoring applications, mobile social and organizing networks for trafficking or domestic abuse victims - the list of potential applications is as endless and varied as there are civil society causes.

I’ll be watching the Open Handset Alliance, and wondering when I can replace my Blackberry with an open phone.