A Cautionary Tale of Open Source Social Technologies

eweekhickins writes "The 'country' drop-down menu on one organization's donations pages omits Israel as a country and includes 'Palestine.' Among other things, this means that Israelis can't donate to the organization from these pages; it also presents the risk of a PR nightmare for the organization. This EWeek story cautions that while basic Web 2.0 technologies combined with open source can be incredibly powerful and productive, they can also lead to disastrous results for an organization that isn't paying close enough attention."

Comments

Not just Open Source

[quanticle]

I don't know why EWeek is specifically highlighting open source software. I don't see how closed source software is immune from this concern.

If you're a nonprofit, you need to look at all the software you're, open-source or not. If you're using software you need to examine it to make sure its not sending a message at odds with your organization.

Re:Interesting story...

[Brian Gordon]

I'm sure to classify it as FUD. They're just bawww bawing because someone forgot to add their country to some (noncomprehensive) list. If Madagascar or something were missing, nobody would bat an eye.. but just because it's Israel it's a huge issue. Come on, by shrieking foul over non-issues like this they muddy the waters of real problems with racism.

I pointed out that this isn't just any omission and addition. When you omit Israel and add Palestine (which is not even recognized as a country by the United Nations) to a country drop-down menu, you seem to be making a very loaded political statement. Ugh, this is not a story.

This isn't the case on the agency's own site, but it was the case on the pages for Causes, which puts widgets... Facepalm.

No trolling in submissions please

[martin-boundary]

Please don't bring the Israel/Palestine mudwrestling into slashdot. The walls have just been freshly painted, and it's not fundamentally a technology issue anyway, since those lobby groups will latch onto anything for publicity.

Meh

[sentientbeing]

FUD. The pro-Israel activists are more annoyed that Palestine is recognized and is in the drop down menu more than Israel being omitted.

They spend a lot of time discouraging recognition of Palestine as an independent state and at every opportunity. Re-read the article again with that in mind. Palestine certainly IS a country and is recognized by many others around the world. The UN reference is a red herring. Israel occupies Palestine with military force.
Take note that it was a pro-Israel pressure group that started this 'controversy' with immediate threats to the developers.

Re:Fuck em

[vandan]

This group should be ignored until they start to act rationally, why can't they politely ask for -- what is obviously a mistake -- to be rectified?

That's not how the Zionist lobby operates. They don't rely on courteous behaviour and goodwill. They bully people into submission by crying 'anti-semite!' and threatening to 'go and tell the whole Jewish community'.

Re:Can't understand where is the problem

[LingNoi]

Actually, yes, it is. Israel bulldozes homes of suicide bombers (basically the only way to punish a dead man, and discourage imitators - put his family out into the street)

That's the most disgusting thing I have ever heard. If you can't figure out what's wrong with punishing innocent people then you don't deserve to live on this planet.

Re:Interesting story...

[MACC]

The inital list was "feature" complete.

Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Russia and a couple of other countries were ommited via the credit card processor.
( professedly due to exessive fraud.)

The person from israel who could not donate
found instant and easy issue with Palestine
being included.

The author blew it up for clicks or a donation
from Bill of Borg.

End of story.

G!
MACC