Michelle Murrain, NOSI

For years and years -- basically, as long as software has been purchased by nonprofit organizations -- the basic model has been: a nonprofit organization pays a fee (sometimes rather large) to a software maker for a copy of software to install on your desktop or server to do a particular task, whether it be tracking donations and constituents, tracking clients, running campaigns, or the like.

What this meant was that each individual organization spent thousands -- or tens, or hundreds of thousands -- of dollars a year to implement software for their organization. The economics of that form of IT investment are hard to manage in a climate where the survival of nonprofits is increasingly endangered, and many are closing or merging.

But other models exist -- namely implementing, investing, and collaborating in open source software.

Michelle Murrain, NOSI

You've gotten used to evaluating software for use in your organization. You have a specific need to fill, you look around for the list of software that can fill that need, make sure that the feature set matches, that you have the budget, and that the company or vendor is reputable, and can provide the support you need. But how do you evaluate free and open source software?

Michelle Murrain and the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) have just published an update to their excellent "Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software: A primer for nonprofits". If your organization is considering a move to Open Source software (or if you want to push it in that direction), you should give this well-written guide a read.

The heart of the primer is found in Chapter 3, "How should you decide if FOSS will work for you?" Michelle writes, "All organizations should consider implementing FOSS. But in any organization, it is necessary to make a case for what can be a significant internal change." She then lays out a cogent overview of the costs and potential value of FOSS, with case studies to illustrate key points.

Michelle MurrainNTEN is pleased to announce that Michelle Murrain of MetaCentric Technology Advising and NOSI: The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative, has joined the NTEN board. Michelle is a long-time technology consultant, and an advocate for open source software. She is the author of the NOSI Primer for Nonprofits, and blogs at Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology.

I have worked with Michelle in the past, and am thrilled to have her 'on board.' We are very lucky here at NTEN. Please extend your warmest welcome to Michelle as NTEN's newest board member.