Software Freedom Day event for NGOs

Transcription

1 Software Freedom Day event for NGOs What : On the occasion of the international Software Freedom Day, the VUFO- NGO Resource Centre will host an event to promote the use of Free and Open Software by NGOs. Other events will also take place in Hanoi the following day at the Bach Khoa university and the Institute of Information Technology When : Where : 9 September 2005 from am pm The NGO Resource Centre, La Thanh hotel, 218 Doi Can, Hanoi Tel. +84 (0) Who : NGOs interested in ICT for development IT personnel and technicians of NGOs Program officers interested in ITC for development People who want to convert to Free and Open Source Software Computer users interested in alternative software on Microsoft Windows Anyone generally interested in Free software and Open Source software People who want help to install free and open source software on their computer 1 Background Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Our goal in this celebration is to raise public awareness of the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business -- in short, everywhere! The non-profit company Software Freedom International provides guidance in organizing SFD, but volunteer teams around the world organize their own SFD 1 Before we install anything on your computer you must reserve a time - please write to david@ngowiki.net

2 events to impact their own communities. More information is available at: and Program of the day at the NGO Resource Centre 10h00 10h30 12h00 14h00 15h00 Time Opening Subjects Presentation of The Open CD and Open Source Desktop tools for windows Lunch time, linux installations, software installation Presentation and question on Open Source Library Systems Presentation and question on Open Source NGO Contact management ( 16h00 Presentation : Is Linux is ready for desktop? 17h00 Tournament of Bzflag ( for windows, linux, macosx, *nix, and *BSD or Linux installations All day long, you will be able to come to our office : Ask questions in English, French or Vietnamese to FOSS and IT specialists Try Free and Open Source Software on Windows, Linux, MAC Try Special FOSS made for NGOs Receive free CDs of FOSS for Windows, linux distributions and software and so on... Play FOSS computer games (starting at 5.00 pm only) Upon reservation we can install you Linux or other FOSS for windows on your desktop/laptop 2 Ask questions about the NGO Resource Centre and also visit our new office. If you are interested to help (financially or not) /attend/information request about the event or reserve time to install software and get training about them please contact David Tremblay, the NGO Resource Centre or the C3LD: david@oxfamquebec.org.vn, david@ngowiki.net and info@ngocentre.org.vn and come to the NGO Resource Centre on 9 September 2005 to celebrate software freedom day and learn how FOSS can improve ICT within NGOs. 2 Before we install anything on your computer you must reserve a time - please write to david@ngowiki.net

3 What is free and open source software (FOSS)? Free and Open source software is software that is developed collaboratively by developers across the globe. The software itself is available at little or no cost. The source code (the human-readable version of the software) is distributed with the executable form, giving users of the software the freedom to modify, adapt and improve the software to meet their needs. What makes Free and open source software special? The basic idea behind open source is very simple: when programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing. At first sight, one might think that this seemingly uncoordinated method of software development would result in chaos, but on the contrary, open source software is well-known for its quality, reliability and security compared with proprietary software. (If open source software is so great,) why haven't we heard of this before? Until recently, FOSS was mostly developed by programmers in their spare time. They were doing what they loved writing software for themselves and sharing it with their fellow programmers. Consequently, the software was never marketed, but remained a "best kept secret" in the academic and technical communities. (In fact, the majority of the Internet is built on open source technologies, as the Internet initially grew out of academic institutions). Contrast this with proprietary software companies who spend a large portion of their budgets on advertising and marketing. Is open source software free? Yes and no. In the monetary sense, open source software is free in that users may freely copy and distribute the software (see the open source definition for more detail). However, a total IT solution consists of hardware, software and services such as support and training. It is important to take all of these into account when discussing the cost of software. The free concept in open source software refers more specifically to freedom: free as in "free speech" or "free market", rather than "free beer". OSS gives users the freedom to use and modify the software to suit their own needs. For non-technical users, this means the freedom from being locked into a single provider for software fixes, upgrades, support and other services. What can open source software do for the home user? There are open source software equivalents for most (if not all) home users' IT

4 requirements, from document processing (office productivity suites) to dialup, and Web browsing functionality, to games, multimedia and graphics applications. Since open source software may be freely used, copied and redistributed, it offers a very affordable IT solution to home users. Add to that the fact that open source software is often more stable and less buggy than many of its proprietary counterparts... What are you waiting for? Why is FOSS relevant to NGOs? If NGOs don't subscribe to the principles of sharing freely, reuse and waste-minimization, then who will? If NGOs take the easy way out and end up on the side of a global monopoly, then words and deeds don't match. 'Freedom' is something NGOs always talk about, in whatever form. In the software world, this is already a reality. The possibility exists; are we ready to take a little extra trouble (the initial learning curve) in opting for it? Because NGOs need quality, stable software. Because NGOs are even more talent-rich, resource-poor than most in the Third World. Because Free Software works out reasonably priced both in the short and long term. Because Free Software creates local jobs and multiplies local skills. Because Free Software is transparent enough for you to (i) learn it, if you have the technical background (ii) make custom changes in the manner you wish to, or pay others to do this for you (iii) enable both you and your staff to learn at a much more deeper, rather than superficial level. Because Free Software is an ethical choice -- not one of convenience. NGOs receive and disseminate much information. It helps to be able to access info (in digital format) without having to (i) break the law (ii) spend money to purchase applications to 'read' the information. Use of Free software enables that. Because free software empowers computer users and encourages them to cooperate. What is CiviCRM? OpenNGO is an open source project to create a set of web-based tools designed to meet the needs of small U.S. nonprofit organizations and non-governmental organizations across the globe. CiviCRM is the first release of the OpenNGO project to create relationship management software for the nonprofit and nongovernmental sectors. CiviCRM stores information on the universe of people associated with a nonprofit organization and on their interactions ( s, donations, petitions, events, etc.).

5 The technology is designed to be lightweight, extensible, core functionality that can both stand-alone as a simple contact management application and be easily integrated with a broad variety of technologies and applications (Donation Processing, Fundraising, Advocacy/GOTV, Event Management, CivicSpace, Advokit, etc.) Nonprofits maintain relationships many types of constituents. They track and solicit donors, recruit volunteers, track clients, and maintain relationships with the public for advocacy purposes. They send out newsletters and invite people to events. CiviCRM enables organizations to maintain all this information in a single database, creating efficiencies and new opportunities for nonprofits to better communicate and benefit from relationships with their constituents. CiviCRM core features include: Store information on Contacts Individuals, Organizations, Households and the relationships among them. Store multiple Locations (phone, address, etc.) for each contact record. Internationalization. Support CRM information for multiple countries. Support custom, user-defined fields for each contact record. Support arbitrary, user-defined groups of contacts. Versioning and rollback for all data. Contact level view/edit permissions. more information at What is PhpMyBibli? PhpMyBibli (PMB) is an Open Source integrated management sytem for libraries PMB is conforme to the rules of libary, UNIMARC, the recomendation 995 and can import BDP notice PMB can work as a standalone workstation you don't necessary need a server. PMB can work as multiuser, in this case you need a server. PMB can run on Windows, MacOs, Linux and UNIX. PMB can be hosted on the web easily because it use standards technologies. PMB is durable and adaptable, you got the source to modify everything you want.