An alternative for the voluntary and community sector

In a two part article, Feargal O’Kane, web developer at NICVA, explains why using free access alternative software may be beneficial to many voluntary organisations. Part 1 details local voluntary sector experiments to date. Part 2, to be published in issue 63, will elaborate on further possibilities and argue that considering the options will become increasingly important in the strategic development of IT in the sector.

Free and open source software (FOSS) is an increasingly viable alternative for a range of projects in business, education and government. From the implementation of FOSS projects like Sugar CRM in US state departments,{footnote}www.sugarcrm.com/crm/customers/oregon.html{/footnote} to the shift to a Linux desktop in Bavaria{footnote}www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/80071{/footnote} and the French Parliament{footnote}http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061127-8298.html{/footnote} and the switch to the FOSS distance learning system Moodle by the Open University,{footnote}http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=31752& SESSION=885{/footnote} it is clear that FOSS is beginning to seriously challenge the ICT world. But what is FOSS, what applications are available for the sector to use, should the voluntary sector use it, and most importantly is it possible for small organisations to switch to FOSS?

What is Free and Open Source Software?

While some free software is available free of charge, not all FOSS is available for free. Free in FOSS is referring to freedom, not price. FOSS is about empowering the user. It ensures that users have the right to use software for any purpose, and that they can modify, improve and share the software if they so wish. Unlike ‘proprietary’ software such as Microsoft or Adobe, FOSS often allows users to resell the software without providing royalties to the original authors of the software, or in some cases without even crediting them.

Reasons for using FOSS

FOSS can be seen as a viable option for voluntary and community organisations on two levels: ethics and utility. The ethics of Free Software certainly do overlap with the ethics of the voluntary sector. Both seek to empower and support people from all backgrounds including some of the most disadvantaged in our society. Both are generally for free speech and freedom to choose.
However, while ethics are an important factor in any decision, the overriding concern must be whether or not the FOSS product is more useful. In some instances FOSS will be more useful than closed solutions, in others (especially with discount prices for charities) it will not. The fact that FOSS is usually cheaper than proprietary solutions is the most widespread argument to using FOSS in the voluntary and community sector. There needs to be a fair and realistic appraisal of how useful FOSS solutions can be for the voluntary and community sector, rather than simply looking at cost.{footnote}http://informationweek.com/story/ showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170102340{/footnote}

What to look for

Interoperability

Interoperability is the idea of ensuring that systems can speak to each other and that data can be transferred between systems. People want to be able to share files, and more importantly read old files in ten years. FOSS is leading the ICT revolution in interoperability.

Range of support available

If your FOSS support vendor goes bankrupt, the channel of support services will not close. Any large FOSS project has thousands of support avenues. While it might be relatively difficult to find the exact replacement in your area, you’ll be able to get support from the Republic, from Great Britain and from the web. There is more support - in more ways – than proprietary software can offer, often from thriving online communities willing to offer support to experienced and new users alike.

Licensing

Licensing is a very important aspect of FOSS. You can copy it legally. This means that your organisational ICT policy can be substantially and positively changed; with FOSS you can deploy those extra tools when you need them without having to worry about infringement. Your legal audit process is greatly reduced, especially if you are a larger organisation.

FOSS in the voluntary sector in practice

There are two main approaches to using FOSS in the voluntary sector – on the desktop and on the web. Although it sounds drastic you may have already used open source software on the desktop without realising it. For example, the increasingly popular Firefox browser is FOSS, while the FOSS server Apache accounts for over 60% of traffic on the web. The voluntary sector here is carrying out a number of trials with FOSS for common website tasks.

The ICT Consortium NI{footnote}www.ictconsortiumni.org{/footnote} is using a range of open source applications to test the suitability of FOSS. The website is built using FOSS, from the server, through the blog (Wordpress), survey (PHP Surveyor) and wiki (pmWiki) software that powers the site to the list management (PHP List) software that is used to keep users up to date with what the consortium is doing. The consortium also uses the FOSS project management tool activeCollab to allow members to track projects from multiple locations. The ICT consortium NI is also using the free learning management system Moodle to roll out ICT distance learning courses following Housing Rights Service’s successful use of the system over the autumn.

In addition to using FOSS on the web, at NICVA we have being testing FOSS on the desktop. Our experiences have reinforced that a switch to using Linux on the desktop with a range of FOSS applications is not only possible but desirable. We have switched all our public facing computers to Ubuntu Linux,{footnote}www.ubuntu.com{/footnote} using Firefox as the web browser. Not only has this increased the security of our system but it has allowed us to re-use older computers for these basic tasks without compromising the user’s experience as Ubuntu can run on older hardware than Windows.

While this is only a small scale trial, the work of the ICT Hub in the UK outlined in part two of this article, which will be published in the next issue of Frontline, shows the potential of FOSS on the desktop. Meanwhile, if you wish to try FOSS in your organisation you can contact Paul Gormley at NICVA for a free copy of Ubuntu Linux.