[Fwd: Nonprofits using Linux?]

[Bruce Dawson]

I'm forwarding this because there may be people on the list who are
interested in Non-Profits, Open Source, and combining the two.

-----Forwarded Message-----

> From: Anders Schneiderman <SCHNEIDA at seiu.org>
> To: ken_i_m at bozemanlug.org
> Cc: reubensilvers at yahoo.com
> Subject: Nonprofits using Linux?
> Date: 23 Oct 2002 09:26:33 -0400
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I was wondering whether you could do me a favor.  I am a member of the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI), and we are trying to put together a series of case studies of the experience of nonprofits using Linux for their network.  The idea behind the study is that we want to show nonprofits that other people just like them have successfully (we hope!)  switched to Linux and give them an idea of what's involved pitfalls to avoid, etc.   Would you be willing to post our notice about the study, attached below, to your LUG's mailing list?  Also, do you have any suggestions about other folks I could talk to who might know of some good leads?
> 
> Thanks,
> Anders Schneiderman
> Nonprofit Open Source Initiative
> http://www.nosi.net
> 
> P.S. In case you're wondering, we've already tried posting to Slashdot but got rejected (they didn't say why).
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------
> Seeking Participants for Linux in Nonprofits Study 
> 
> The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) is developing case studies of nonprofit organizations that use Linux for their office network. We are looking for organizations with staffs of 15 people or more. If you work or volunteer for a nonprofit of that size, that uses Linux for networking (including file/print sharing, or as an email server), we are interested in interviewing you about your experience. 
> 
> The idea behind the study is to convince more nonprofits to take a serious look at Linux. While many schools and government agencies are beginning to consider Linux as an option, awareness in the rest of the nonprofit sector, especially small-to-medium size organizations, remains very low. Given that these groups have very tight budgets and share the volunteer ethic of Open Source, you would think that Linux would be widespread among them. But so far nonprofits have been surprisingly reluctant to embrace Open Source. When it comes to technology, nonprofits tend to trail several years behind the for-profit world. Although many nonprofits use Apache, PHP, etc. for Web work, most treat the idea of Open Source in general and Linux in 
> particular the same way businesses did several years ago. The fact that Open Source is now mainstream in the business world hasn't had much impact on the way nonprofits see it. 
> 
> By doing this study, we hope to show nonprofits that other organizations just like theirs have used Linux to cut their total IT costs (including training and support) and to create networks they can really count on. We also hope to give them a better understanding of what it means to run Linux vs. Microsoft/Novell networks as well as the issues they need to think about and the pitfalls that they will want to avoid if they moved to Open Source on the back end. 
> 
> If you think your organization would make a good case study, please fill out the survey that's available on the study's web page at http://www.nosi.net/tco.shtml. For more information on NOSI, please check out our web site at www.nosi.net. 
> 
> Thanks, 
> Reuben Silvers 
> Anders Schneiderman 
> The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative 
> www.nosi.net

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