Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

I got some interesting comments on the last post about Linux desktops. I realize that I haven’t talked about this in a while, and I’m not sure I’ve actually ever articulated this completely on this blog. So here goes.

I got involved in Linux a long time ago. I was a professor at the time, and a nonprofit organization wanted to get on the web, and give some of their staff email, and at the time, colleges and universities were the only organizations that had easy access to the internet, and virtual hosting companies cost a fortune, way beyond what a nonprofit could afford. The date was sometime in 1995. We set up a little box in the corner of my office, and loaded several piles of floppies containing the Slackware distribution onto this box. After a few hours (as opposed to the few minutes it would take now) we configured that server to hold a website and serve email. The old site is still up on the Wayback Machine. I co-administered that box for a few years. Eventually, they got a T1, and moved the server in-house. I left academia to do that sort of thing with nonprofits full time. In fact, that experience, and the work I did around it with that organization, was the first step into this whole nonprofit technology field.

What I learned about Linux back then was that it was a way (along with the help of a college) for a nonprofit organization to get on the web easily and relatively inexpensively. It leveled the playing field, so that an organization without many resources could do what at that time, required a lot of resources. In many ways for me, the most important aspect of free and open source software is that it does just that - it levels the playing field so that people and organizations with few resources can have access to quality tools to do what it is they need and want to do in this software-driven world.

I’ve learned a lot about FOSS since then, of course, and the other aspects of FOSS have also come to be very important to me. I do agree, fundamentally, with the four freedoms laid out by the Free Software Foundation:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

And ultimately, in Michelle’s perfect world, all software, all content, all hardware, etc. would all be free (libre). But we don’t live in Michelle’s perfect world, we live in this world. This broken, very imperfect, very problematic, and quite capitalist world.  And in that world, I am a realist.

I am ecstatic, and do many happy dances a day, that there are people who write and support free software. I think of myself as one of them (Besides working with NOSI, I’ve been involved in several projects over the years in varied capacities.) The number of situations where one can still argue on a functional and cost level that proprietary software is a better bet get fewer and fewer. I could easily argue that for the overwhelming majority of places you need an operating system, the free and open source alternatives are better (if you count the BSD core of the Mac OS. If you don’t, it’s still the majority.) There are innumerable really great free and open source desktop applications that can run on any OS, and there are more every day.

And, surprisingly to me, I’m quite happy that lots of big corporations are now really getting into free and open source software support. I think, ultimately, it’s when big corporations want to ditch Windows on the desktop that the biggest strides will be made in Linux desktop usability and support. That’s a tide that will really lift all the boats.

Bottom line for me: free and open source software is about leveling the playing field, free access, community benefit, and community control allows this. That’s why I got into it in the beginning, and that’s why I’m sticking around, and doing what I can, even though I’ll be using my Mac (with, of course, a lot of free software applications on top.)

I’m doing a webinar on Linux Desktops next month, and it’s making me think a lot about my own experience using Linux on the desktop, and where I think things are going. If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ve heard my various sagas around using Linux on the desktop. I migrated to making it my primary desktop about a year ago. I have had varied problems, from issues of software integration, video problems, wireless issues … The list is getting very long.

And, guess what? I’m giving up. At some point, when I’ve saved up enough pennies, I’m going to buy a Mac laptop again. I’ve basically switched to using my Mac mini for just about everything except the bit of systems admin and coding I do, because it’s just so much easier to set up things on Linux for that type of work.

What happened was I felt like I was wasting too much time on things that should be easy. It should be easy to plug in a new monitor. It should be easy to get wireless, it should be easy to add a new printer. It should be easy to play a DVD. These things are far from the fault of Linux. On the Windows side the hardware manufacturers make proprietary drivers for Windows, and very few make drivers for Linux, or open source their drivers so that Linux developers can use them. On the Mac side, Apple controls the hardware, so there never is a problem with it. (And, of course, there are plenty of peripherals that don’t work with Macs.) And then there are the proprietary codecs and DRM, that are all tied to an OS.

So what does this mean for Linux on the desktop? This experience has made me think a lot about where organizations should think about using Linux, and where they should steer clear.

My theory is that where Linux is going really work is in dedicated devices built from the ground up to run Linux, and used for relatively limited purposes. The eePC is a great example, as are cell phones, media players, etc. This is where Linux will shine. And, of course, there are some other situations where Linux also shines: kiosks, internet cafes, computer labs and email/web workstations. There isn’t good reason, at this point, *not* to use Linux there. I think it can also work for the folks who perhaps use laptops as their primary machines, and don’t do anything except email and web. And, of course, always, for developers. I probably will always have a Linux desktop around, even if it ends up being a virtual machine, for the varied (small, at this point) development projects I have going. It’s just dead easy to use Linux for development - easier than using the Mac, even though it has BSD as it’s basis.

Where is Linux not a good idea? Most creatives and knowledge workers who are not developers. There are just too many things we need - too many cool new peripherals, we want to manipulate too many kinds of data and media, etc. And we don’t (at least I don’t) want to spend to much time getting all of that to work. And there still are lots of newer software and services that aren’t coming out in Linux versions (for instance there does not exist a decent usable twitter client for Linux - gwitter is not very usable at all, and the others just don’t work.) And, of course, designers need software that just don’t have high enough quality open source alternatives yet. I think that for a while, at least, Linux won’t be a good desktop option this broad group of people. Which is unfortunate, and I hope it changes. Linux has made huge usability strides in the past few years, as has open source software in general, so I think the future is still bright.

In honor of the webinar that is happening in a couple of weeks, I figured I’d talk a bit about CiviCRM. CiviCRM is a nonprofit-focused open source tool, centered around membership, fundraising, events and such.

CiviCRM was one of the first (of a now growing number) of nonprofit-focused open source tools. It originally came out of the idea of making moving eBase (the CRM based on Filemaker Pro) to the web.

CiviCRM has 4 basic components: CiviContribute, CiviMail, CiviMember, and CiviEvents  - which allow you to track contacts, donations, members, send out email blasts, have event registration, etc. There is even a new case management feature in 2.0, which can be useful for organizations that need that functionality.

CiviCRM is a great CRM for small-to-medium sized organizations that need CRM functionality. In order to insure email deliverability on blasts, you’ll need to have it hosted somewhere where they are actively dealing with whitelists, etc. Otherwise, it’s easy to host it on a generic hosting account, if you don’t need that functionality. It can integrate with both Drupal or Joomla, and there is a new stand-alone version as well. Drupal integration is better, but there is a lot of active development going into improving the Joomla integration.

CiviCRM ranked #1 in satisfaction in the recent NTEN CRM satisfaction survey.

I am so far behind, it’s not funny. I’ve got to catch up. My goal is to catch up by the end of this month, so that I’ll still be on track to make it to 100 free and open source tools by December.

This post gives me the chance to finally write the very belated post on MPower I’ve been meaning to write since I got back from NTC.

MPower is not a new product. It’s been around for quite a while, and has a solid user base. It is an enterprise-class client/server CRM, and has the kind of features you see in such packages as Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge. What’s new about MPower is that it has very recently been released as open source.

I had a great sit-down with Randy McCabe, CEO and Leo D’Angelo (CTO) of MPower at NTC. I heard a lot about the product, and their plans, and I was impressed with their thinking, and with the direction they are heading. Their basic idea makes a lot of sense to me, and it clearly is an idea that lots of companies that release open source products are thinking: don’t increase revenue by trying to milk as many current customers as possible (which is, frankly, the goal of many proprietary software vendors, especially those with very niche packages without much potential for growth in customer base,) broaden the number of customers out there greatly by making barrier to entry low.

They expect to make up the difference in revenue that they got from licenses from services sold to a greater number of organizations that would not have been customers otherwise. Lots of open source companies (RedHat, MySQL AB, Novell, Alfresco, SugarCRM, Canonical) are doing similar things.

For you purists: don’t get all upset. Yes, it’s a Windows product. Yes, it’s written in .NET and C#. Yes, it requires MSSQL server. So what? It’s open source, and it is yet another option for organizations - and it is an open source replacement for Raiser’s Edge. How cool is that? And it’s open source - so someone who really cares can port it to work with MySQL, etc. And, it’s got completely open APIs.

All of that said, there are a few things I hope that they consider. I hope that they decide to go with an OSI approved license (they are currently using their own, which is a modification of the Apache license. Having looked at it, it’s a fine license, but it would help them if they used one that is known already, like the GPL, or LGPL, etc.)

They also have, at this point, no community. They have a partner program, which is like a lot of partner programs - you have to be vetted, yadda yadda. Not at all in alignment with the open source ethic. They need to open their doors, make installing MPower easy (it’s not, at this point) and set up some community functions to help grow a community around the product, which will help it grow, and really help to begin to provide the avenues for developers to get involved, and continue to help build the product.

I’ll be following MPower closely over the next months and years. I have high hopes for it. And Blackbaud may well be shaking in their boots.

Here’s some other coverage:

• Podcast from the Nonprofit Tech Blog
• Post from Josiah Richie
• Video Interview of Randy McCabe

Here’s a few interesting tidbits gleaned from the net:

• It appears that Microsoft’s bid to get Office Open XML, their new office standard did get through ISO. Interestingly enough, lots of developing world countries voted against it. There’s lots of great details on Groklaw.
• Venture capitalists are liking open source more and more. Why do we nptechies care? More $ toward open source is a tide that lifts all boats.
• It’s still mighty small (still around 2%), but Linux Desktop market share grew from 40-60% (depending on who you ask) from last year.
• Adobe (yeah, Adobe) joined the Linux Foundation, and released a Linux alpha of Air, their new application platform.

Since I’ve been covering CRMs for the webinar today, I figured I’d switch categories on my free and open source software list. So for the next few tools, I’ll be describing CRMs (Constituent/Contact/Community/Customer Relationship Management). The first one is one that I’ve been using recently for my consulting business - SugarCRM.

Unlike CiviCRM, which is targeted to nonprofits, SugarCRM is a system targeted toward sales in for-profit companies. It has three versions: Enterprise, Professional,  and Community Edition. That’s the one I’ve been using. They also have a newer on-demand version (that is, software as a service, like salesforce.)

I’ve been hearing good things about SugarCRM from organizations that use it. It also gets kudos from NTEN’s satisfaction survey (it came in third, after CiviCRM and Salesforce.)

Anyway, SugarCRM is basically “enterprise class” CRM, and is worth a look.

In a surprising move, the US Navy will stop buying proprietary hardware and software, and only buy open systems.

“The days of proprietary technology must come to an end,” he said. “We will no longer accept systems that couple hardware, software and data.”

Basically, it seems the motivation is that open systems allow them to upgrade their capabilities rapidly, and they need to be able to share data freely.

This could be a watershed moment. The process of governments in Europe starting to shift to open source software, and software that used open standards, rapidly increased the use of FOSS in Europe. It could happen here.

As some of you who follow me on Twitter know, I ran into frustrations a few days ago with WPA. In Kubuntu, the distribution of Ubuntu I had installed, the WPA-enabled Network Manager isn’t installed by default (or at least it seemed not to have been installed when I did it - could have been my fault.) I knew that I should do it at some point, but I hadn’t encountered a WPA network until last week, so I hadn’t bothered. Needless to say, I’m doing that right now.

But what I realized was that the whole WPA thing with my laptop added to the pile of “little problems I haven’t solved yet.” Now, of course, as a techie, and someone with a home network, and multiple computers, and varied projects, there is always a list like this. But I’ve come to realize that now that I use Linux as my primary desktop, this list has grown much, much larger than it ever has been.

• After spending close to five hours on the X windows/driver problem I vented about last week. I gave up. I attached the nice brand-spanking new monitor to my Mac Mini, and have been quite enjoying using it. Needless to say, I did absolutely nothing to get it to work. Plugged it in, and it just worked.
• It took me a couple of frustrating hours or so to configure samba (editing the samba.conf file and testing) so that I could share my home directory, with music and video, with my other computers, and share my printer. Of course with my mac, I opened up the system preferences, checked a button, and, voila! Directories were shared.
• I have outstanding issues or decisions to make with my kernel not seeing all the memory I’ve given it (therefore requiring a recompile, which I have been postponing for weeks) sound, a webcam, a scanner, and accounting software. And there were several problems I never solved - including syncing calendars and addressbooks, finding a good time tracker. The problems I “solved” by offloading the functions onto the web.

There are several issues here, of course. First, although I’ve used Linux on the server for so many years, so I’m used to getting things done via the command line, my primary desktop was a Mac for 20 years, so I am GUI spoiled. So desktop functions (as opposed to server functions) that some people probably find trivially easy to do with the command line, I’m looking for a good GUI. Also, having used a Mac for so long, I’m also “it just works” spoiled. In fact, what’s funny is that things that do in fact “just work” with Linux almost surprise me.

And, as Dustin pointed out in the comments to my venting post earlier, a lot of this is not the fault of open source desktop software developers. Hardware vendors don’t release drivers for Linux, or if they do, they remain proprietary. This does, for sure, hobble the usability of Linux on the desktop. Apple has the luxury of a hardware monopoly, so of course things are more likely to “just work.”

And, of course, there has been a lot of resources and money poured into server software for Linux, but not as much for tools for the desktop.

This is my dilemma. I am committed to the ethos of free software. And I’ve talked about how the means and the ends are the same - so it’s important to me to use open source tools. But I also have to get work done for my clients. And I have to eat, too. Adding extra hours to the week dealing with technology problems are hours I don’t spend working with clients. (I estimate that 2-3 additional hours/week are spent just because I use Linux on the desktop.) The WPA fiasco a few days ago fell exactly at the moment when some really important work needed to get done for a client - so it sometimes hampers my ability to get things done.

I do demand a lot of my system. I’ve got tons of peripherals, I’m constantly changing and modifying things - I’m a power user. If pretty much all I did was documents, email and the web, like many people, I wouldn’t be having these issues.

I guess I’m looking to find the right balance, being able to use Linux on the desktop, and actually not feel too bogged down in problems I need to solve. But I’m not there yet. Not only have I offloaded functions to the web, I’m beginning to offload some things to my Mac again (like scanning.) It’s easier for me to think about spending minutes rather than hours getting things to work.

I’m running behind, so I need to catch up in the next week or so. I’m still on internet clients, believe it or not, and still have some to go.

Today, I’m talking about Flock. Flock is the “social browser.” For bookmarking, it uses your del.icio.us account. It can bring in your photos (and the photos of your contacts) from flickr. It can keep track of your Twitter friends, etc. You can also use it as a blog editor, which I am going to start trying out.

It’s amazingly good. I’d tried it a couple of years ago, and it was buggy, crashed, and seemed like something that was a great idea, but not realized. Now, it’s realized. It’s really quite nice. It’s based on Mozilla Firefox, and apparently the developers of Flock contribute a fair bit back to the Firefox codebase.

Update: I’ve been using it now as my default browser for the last day or so, and it is really growing on me.

Somehow, given that tomorrow is such a big day in the political realm, it seems quite appropriate that I’m headed down to DC to give a talk at the Politics Online Conference. It’s a conference that is an event of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. I’ve never been - online politics has never really been my focus. But I’m quite looking forward to it. I’m giving a talk on the panel on Open Sourced Advocacy, where I’ll be speaking with my colleagues Ryan Ozimek (of PICnet) and Jo Lee (of CitizenSpeak), as well as Michael Haggerty, of Trellon, and Alan Rosenblatt, of the Center for American Progress.

I’m looking forward to talking about free and open source software to this audience.