NOSI is very interested in the use of free and open source software in the nonprofit sector. We want to understand better how FOSS is used, what people's attitudes are towards it, and what resources are necessary for organizations to choose and use FOSS.

This is the first of an annual survey, so we can track trends of the use of FOSS in the sector, and so we can strategize to meet the needs of the sector.

It will take about 10 minutes to fill out. We'd very much appreciate your time!

Take the survey.

There has been a lot moving and shaking with NOSI lately. I figured I could give a sneak peek at what projects NOSI has in mind for in the next year.

• A "State of the Sector" survey of the use of FOSS in nonprofit organizations
• A revision of the primer
• A webinar series in collaboration with NTEN
• A new case study database, funded by Google, and in collaboration with Social Source Commons
• The start of a training program - beginning with a free training on OpenOffice.org at the Google offices in NYC, and to include both in-person and online training in such topics as FOSS desktop apps, (like OpenOffice.org), Linux systems administration, CMS systems, Moodle, and other tools.
• Consulting to help organizations choose and use FOSS
• A searchable database of vendors, consultants and organizations that support FOSS

Please make sure to subscribe to the nosi discussion list for updates.

Madera, California needed a new phone system. Commercial vendors were giving them estimates of $350K and above to replace the system they had. For $140K, they implemented Asterisk, giving them a system that had more value and flexibility than the ones that were going to cost twice as much.

Read the report in Computer World - it's quite compelling.

NOSI is in Zagreb, Croatia, for the 2007 Open Translation event, co-organized by Aspiration and the Multimedia Institute. It's a great gathering of folks - both developers of open source translation tools, as well as producers of open content that have needs for translation. My role is to catalog and describe use cases, that can be used to match with current tools, as well as used to help figure out what needs to be done.

Check out the Flickr photos!

As you know, a couple of months ago, we released the updated version of the NOSI Primer, which we produced with the generous support of IBM. We added many more case studies and compiled a great list of organizations that support Free and Open Source Software. We collaborated with Aspiration to pull a live feed of FOSS tools that nonprofits can use, so our tool list will be up to date as long as Aspiration's Social Source Commons is an active community. It won't be stale in six months. We updated the content to reflect current nonprofit technology realities and the dramatic changes in FOSS options for nonprofits since our groundbreaking first primer.

We're not done, though.

We hope to continue to update the primer on a quarterly basis, adding new case studies and knowledge.

We'd like to re-invigorate the old case study database so that all kinds of nonprofits can find organizations that have shared similar challenges to theirs and found free and open source solutions that worked.

We're planning ...

• a "State of the Sector" survey of the use of FOSS in the nonprofit sector.
• a usable database of organizations and consultants that support FOSS.
• to continue to convene and co-convene events that bring the nonprofit technology community together with free software developers and with organizations looking to understand free software.
• to ramp up our presence at nonprofit oriented conferences where we can introduce nonprofits to the strategic and missions based advantages that free and open source software can bring to their work.

NOSI, throughout our history, has survived on minimal funding, coming almost exclusively from IBM's funding for the primer projects, with a handful of nonprofit technology assistance providers devoting staff time, and a few dedicated independent consultants putting a lot of work into keeping this community and resource vital and viable. Fundamentally, it has been a volunteer effort.

Today, NOSI is moving into a new phase, phase of being a sustainable organization that can be the focus of a community of practice around the use of FOSS in the sector, an advocate for the use of FOSS, a thought leader in the nonprofit technology field, and a provider of concrete resources for nonprofit organizations so that they can better choose and use FOSS.

In addition, in 2008, NOSI will be going through the process of
incorporating, and getting its own 501(c)(3) status. All of these take resources - both financial and practical.

We need your help. How can you help?

You can give what you can. We've actually never raised money from our community, but we hope that what we've accomplished over the years has been of use to you and that the activities we have in mind in 2008 will be of even more use. We need your donations.

You can help by getting involved. Our hope is that as we become
sustainable, we can find many more ways to get people who are interested involved in NOSI. Already, we've been looking for new bloggers. We could use help in the process of incorporation and getting tax-exempt status.

Look for other ways to get involved in the coming months.

Please donate and help NOSI become an organization that can be the advocate and resource that you've been dreaming of.