ubuntu-ngo team mailing list archive

[Andy Loughran <andy@xxxxxxxx>]

Guys,

I've been paying attention to the list, and am pretty impressed by what the
aims and vision is for ubuntu-ngo.  It's great to see so many people from a
common background come together to help NGOs all over the world, making
their IT systems more effective and affordable.

One of the biggest potential benefits I can see from ubuntu-ngo, is less
about the software and more about collaboration.  After 5 minutes in the IRC
room, I found there was a guy whose project was running a pretty fragile
version of gnumed, and needed a patient management system to help him out.
I'm working in a similar, but not identical field, so finding and creating
software which is scalable and replicable is an awesome aim.

In the same way that pinax[0] build on django by creating a set of reusable
apps out of an already exciting framework, I think one of the best things
that ubuntu-ngo can offer is our experience of doing things on ubuntu that
other charities and NGOs can replicate.  Unfortunately this isn't going to
be the 'high-profile' projects, but more the "How can we implement a
comprehensive and incremental backup for all our computers."  Ubuntu can
solve this problem whether or not the computers are Macs, Windows, or other
distros.

I used to work as a Systems Administrator in Manchester, servicing mainly
the charities sector. I really enjoyed the work, however, providing these
people with open source 'products' seemed to be a slightly backward
approach.  With 'open source,' you are able to help redesign the business
process.  We don't have to fit the charity to a project and try and make it
fit - you can tailor a program to the needs of the charity.  The problem
with that is it requires one of two things:

1) adminstrators and programmers within the charity to make it work.
2) other charities to collaborate and share the cost and the benefit.

Where we can work together to solve problems, we can do it more effectively
and cheaper.  Having to configure or write software that's immediately got
to fulfil multiple aims whilst being similar requires well written code.  I
hope ubuntu-ngo can help organise and develop these ideas, whilst also
providing packaging for software that would be useful, but does not yet
exist in the ubuntu repos.

Thanks,

Andy Loughran (LoveTheOne)