Open Source Software for Peace Corps Volunteer?

yemanja forwards along a request for a friend: "Justin Wiley, a young friend of mine is running an 'open source lab' in the Phillipines as a Peace Corps volunteer. He'd like to ask this question of Slashdot: 'Rhe NGO I am working with primarily supports governmental bodies. We are trying to convert them over to Open Source software, and have done so in some areas like putting Mandrake, Open Office, and Mozilla on all the desktops of the national economic development authority. However, it would be useful to have a body of applications providing more specific gov't. purposes. I'm looking for Open Source packages that can do things useful for the government, like inventory control, customer management, auditing, content-management, project management/monitoring, security, and so on. If I can make some of the kids into experts in these areas, it will be easier to get them a job in government, and easier to work in Open Source software if there are people trained in using and operating it. If you run into anything like that, let me know!' I know that cities like Munich have converted to Open Source, but I wonder if anyone on Slashdot has experience with this sort of question and can provide Justin with some specific suggestions that might be useful."

Comments

Project Management ala dotproject. and my 0.02

[moorley]

A few years back I remember doing the whole "convert the world to Linux thing" and was knocked off my stride by the need for project management, Gant Charts and required access to Outlook so Microsoft Project could be used. So sayeth the Project Lead!

But at my newest job they are using dotproject. Works well, has Gant charts. If only I had it back then. Muhuhahhahhahaha!

Seriously, check it out. www.dotproject.net

As for the rest... Just my .02 but you are looking more at slow and easy deployment. There are lots of programs out there that can do it. I'll try to post another response with a few I've found on freshmeat.net

The fun part won't be finding and/or implementing the software. The fun part will be convincing the folks to use it and making peace with whatever biases they have. It's not as cliche as "They'll choose Microsoft when given the choice" but more like "If they feel they have a choice, they will want to exercise it." And what they want may not necessarily be what is out there, open source, and that works reliable.

So coming up with a list of applications that they should learn is kinda tough. It's going to change no matter what.

Let the fun begin!

Good basic linux skills will get them farther, let the vendors drive for a particular choice. Just make them good compu learners...