I recently completed an interview with Tim of the "Social Source Commons":http://www.socialsourcecommons.org, about my "Recycle-A-Bicycle":http://www.recycleabicycle.org toolbox on SSC. You can't comment at SSC but you can at here--I'd love feedback about how you would have filled in the gaps that I filled with proprietary software. What I'd really like is to encourage the NOSI community to take a stab at creating a couple of toolboxes for NOSI. *Toolbox 1] The NPO Desktop:* if you do support or consulting work with a non-techie organization, or if you are actually staff at a non-profit that doesn't have a primarily technical mission, create a toolbox and put your whole desktop in it: what are the tools you use from day to day? I'd like to see a series of snapshots of real desktops. These Desktop Toolboxes could be a really great tool for all of us in understanding where the tools are that keep folks tied to proprietary operating system. Some of them we know (Quickbooks, Quickbooks, Quickbooks) but others we really don't know. So have at it: make a toolbox for your desktop or for a desktop you support, and tag it "NOSI_desktop_project":http://www.socialsourcecommons.org/tag/NOSI_desktop_project *Toolbox 2] The Free Software Desktop* this doesn't have to be a snapshot of a single organization, but I'd like to see the NOSI community start to articulate what you think is ready for active desktop use by non-technical users. Not non-technical like "how do I double click again" but non-technical like "that is nice, but I need to sort my spreadsheet now, so please go talk about this Ruby on Rails business at someone else's desk" Firefox and Thunderbird are easy, even OpenOffice.org is easy. So add them if you use them, support them, or recommend them, but what else do you use? GNU Cash? SQL Ledger? Do you actually layout your newsletter in Scribus or use something different? So that is the second toolbox I'd like to see. You can describe your toolbox, so add some context about how you chose the tools you're including and tag this one "NOSI_free_software_desktop":http://www.socialsourcecommons.org/tag/NOSI_free_software_desktop. And? Pass it on!

Join me at the Aspiration offices in the San Francisco Nonprofit Technology Center for the first of what we hope will be many NOSI Salons.

The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) is gearing up for a new phase of activity, and we want to hear what you are thinking about open source software and it's role in the nonprofit sector. In what ways is the connection working? How is it not? What kinds of new ideas and resources are needed? We're also looking to start conversations on how to get nonprofits involved in the open source community. How do we foster open source development in the nonprofit sector? How do we educate nonprofit technology staff and consultants on the ethos of open source software, not just it's practical applications?

Talk with Michelle Murrain of NOSI and Allen Gunn of Aspiration about your ideas and passions for open source. Snacks and beverages provided. We'll be meeting at the Aspiration offices - 1370 Mission St. 4th Floor, in San Francisco, at 5:30-7:00 pm on December 11th. Please come by, and lend us your ideas, and tell us what you think NOSI should be tackling in the next year.

And if you can't come to the Salon, drop me a note, or login here and leave comments. We'll be posting a report in a day or so after the event.