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A Cautionary Tale of Open Source Social Technologies

Posted by kdawson on from the careful-what-you-let-go-viral dept.

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."

4 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Not just Open Source by quanticle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
  2. Re:Interesting story... by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.
  3. No trolling in submissions please by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:Interesting story... by MACC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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