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How Can I Contribute To Open Source?
rtobyr writes "I work for a state government agency. That means we can't donate money, because it's a 'gift of public funds.' I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.' A mirror server is a no-go as well. I'm certainly not a talented enough programmer to help with development. I've donated $10 here and there out of my own pocket, but I'm hoping you Slashdotters have some creative ideas about how my organization could give something back to the teams that create free software we benefit so much from."
Buy support. Pay for your Linux licenses. Just because it's open source doesn't mean that you should pay $0.
By buying from a legitimate open source company, you help reinforce the open source eco-system.
And it's all legitimate: it's not a donation, so your boss shouldn't object. You are still saving a lot of money compared to buying a proprietary solution, but you are helping people who code full-time sustain themselves. Let's face it, developers are the critical resource for most open source projects.
PS: some cool startups are looking for extra developers/founders: help people go solar, build a better bug collector tool, or help build a music community that supports its bands.
I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.' A mirror server is a no-go as well. I'm certainly not a talented enough programmer to help with development.
First, if your manager says don't put up a web page, then don't. End of discussion. Yes he might be wrong. In fact, it's likely he's wrong. But you have a job to do -- don't risk it by challenging your boss. It's enough you're saving taxpayer dollars doing that, even if it isn't acknowledged (Thank You).
Second... I don't want my tax dollars being used for a mirror server. Plenty of other people do that already, and even if they didn't, we have bittorrent.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The knowledge that government agencies are using open source tools probably does a lot to legitimize such software. Even if you can't publicize it, you can probably let other government agencies/depts know what you use and how it helps you and how it helps with your budget (crucially important to every government entity) and encourage them to adopt similar practices; hell help them out with doing so and making the transition.
Eventually, the word will get out through suppliers, vendors, potential news articles, etc and will do more to help the movement than small monetary donations. Whaddya mean that program x is unreliable, the fire dept/tax agency/welfare dept, etc uses it?
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
it's as clear as daylight.
Many FOSS projects need lots of help on the documentation and art assets.
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
For many projects out there $100 would be a lot of money. In many cases project web pages have "Donate" links which work through paypal. So I suggest you list a few OSS products you use. Take a couple of hundred dollars out of petty cash (call it software licensing) and donate it to those projects.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
And if you can't do that, just leave the OS and webserver (but not specific version) info enabled in Apache so at least netcraft knows what you're running.
Or ask a state rep or governor to praise the money savings thanks to free and open source software use in your department on the record and try to get their remark printed in a blurb in the local paper or online.
How Can I Contribute To Open Source?
This question seems to be distinctly different from your paragraph. Your $10 here and there is something I've also done many times. And it's great to hear that I'm not alone. From buying Firefox swag to just realizing that FOSS Product A saved me (at least) three days of my time so the least I can do is paypal $20 to those in charge.
So if you'd like to contribute in other ways, pick a project that has something that you know a lot about or are passionate about and try to make small improvements submitted as patches. Good with embedded C? Try to help out the Firefox team in squeezing out cycles. Good with computer vision algorithms? Hit up OpenCV or even write some more script/extensions for the Gimp. What's your passion? The most important thing to remember is to not get discouraged when your patch gets rejected or deferred or sent back. Ask for feedback from the team and keep in mind you're there to support them. Firefox might be too closely knit of a project for you to break into but just perusing sourceforge or github will open up your eyes to who's out there looking for your help. A lot of these projects have wish lists.
But what I'm hearing from you is that you'd like to give FOSS more recognition than contributions. No one wants your management or tax payer to feel obligated to fund open source. That flies directly in the face of what open source wants to do for you.
I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.'
Above all, respect your management. Were I in your place, I'd take a page from the DoD and on your page post side by side both the open source products you use and the proprietary products you use with a brief explanation. Get your management to approve this (pending security concerns) and whenever a change is made or an addition of open source product is used, put it up. I think you'll find that your page--if not from the get go--will slowly start to paint a common picture: the coexistence of open source products and proprietary products not only working side by side but also supporting each other.
I would not recommend trying to make a business case out of government funded changes to open source products unless you have someone high up in your pocket and on your side. Doing something like that could really make you look foolish if you have no clout to begin with and could injure your reputability. Just a thought, you're free to proceed as you see fit.
My work here is dung.
If your agency can spend the time, testing/bug reporting and writing/improving/proofreading documentation is always welcome. If there are any people in your organization who are fluent in other languages, have them participate in the translations.
Government operates by forcibly taking money from one person and giving it to another person or organization. So you can't "contribute" to open source any more than I can contribute my neighbor's car to a needy family. That said, by using open source you're doing a noble thing: you're preventing that much taking-and-redistributing that would otherwise occur. So I agree with your boss - don't endorse, don't "contribute", but definitely use, thereby reducing the burden of government for everyone. And, quietly spread the word to other government employees - it's rare to see such conscious actions by those in government.
Use it, submit bug reports, and participate on forums. When you can, push for more open-source to be used in your organisation.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
It's all about metrics - just telling you boss is never the way to get things done. Write a report - with real numbers, kind of like a cost/benefit ratio analysis.
Never Compromise
Many companies try to dictate what their employees can do in their own time with blogs, web sites...
Whether they are allowed to control you this way or not, the rule is always the same. Do whatever you want and don't get caught.
And yet no one seems to have a problem with the brib^H^H^H^H "gift of public funds" to purchase votes for crap legislation.
At $JOB-- (public university), we had a pair of redundant firewalls running OpenBSD that saved us thousands, and made us very happy.
It was easy to get approval to buy the OpenBSD CD sets with each release. It was only a few hundred dollars over the course of several years, cheap for us, and better-than-nothing for Theo et al.
Check to see if the devs have any documentation (O'Reilly books, pay PDFs, etc) for sale. This is another good place to kick in a few bucks, documentation is a legitimate expense and worthwhile investment.
What bothers me is that some companies (eg ZenOSS) make support SOOOO expensive when you jump from the open-source to commercial version. The price jump for a small business is insane, especially if they're fine without 24/7 support and the features they have already.
You don't have to be a programmer to participate in projects. They need bug reports, they need feature ideas, they need people to help organize the roadmap and say what will make the next version the best version ever.
A lot of open source projects could really use the input of real life users. The developers may not use the actual software as much as you do, so your opinions about what features are truly important and what are nice to have, can often be more important than the developer's opinions.
So participate in the communities that produce the software you use. You'll help them make better software, and you'll get better software in return. If you need justification/rationale for your boss, you can point out that it's no different from corporate customers of Microsoft who participate in beta programs for software they use, or provide other feedback on advance copies. Open source is a perpetual advance copy of the next release, so you always have a chance to contribute that way, even if you don't code.
--Julian
Bosses don't like the "endorsement" aspect? Don't worry about it.
Put up a web page saying what software you use, open source, closed source, all of it.. Don't say why you picked it.
Put links to the open source projects.
You don't give it "endorsement," but you do get the software recognized (hmm, they use a webserver named "Apache?")
It's just freedom of information at that point.
Besides the good suggestions above, I am curious about this part:
I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.'
Technically, if it is true ("you" are selecting free/open source software to save tax dollars, and there is a statement someplace in the govt documents indicating that is part of the reason for the choices made) then endorsement or not, it's public information, and I do not see why stating it, if worded correctly (to properly indicate the reason such choices were made) would run afoul of anything.
The government has in the past made statements on how it has or plans on saving money. The wording of such a statement though is probably key to ensuring it does not run afoul with any other rules and laws (also assuming that such a statement is both (a) true and (b) indicated in some public government document).
But that's just my opinion - and regardless of whether it is correct, it still in no way guarantees you will keep your job after making such a statement on a govt or related site.
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
Pick a project like bacula (best backup software made to date). Use it adopt it spread the word. After that you can support the project, they have a bunch of items on the to do list ( http://www.bacula.org/misc/Vote-2009.html ). If one of the items would help your work, sponsoring project would be a way to help open source software. -Jason
informing the software developers that your goverment agency is using their software is not an endorsement, its just a statement of fact
you might have to state "this is not an endorsement" so they don't get confused,
and then they can list it on their "companies that use our products" page,
and its not an endorsement.
since goverment agencies produce fiscal reports, if you estimate how much you saved on licenses or maintenance, and put that in the report, it becomes public record
something like that
First, ask the open source project where they need help. If all else fails, you could learn how to write documentation for the project. Helpful documentation is notoriously bad for projects that are too focused on the internals without an outside view.
1. Don't call it open source. Realize that the freedom aspect is as important for you as for the transparency of your "the people"-serving agency.
2. Always consider free software first when implementing a new feature or system. Use is contribution.
3. Learn to program and encourage others in your organization to do the same. It's not all about talent and can improve performance in nearly any job.
4. If you have written any scripts to help you use free software, release those under the (A)GPL.
5. Write, clarify, test and improve documentation. It's another important task that doesn't get enough attention in free software.
6. Submit bug reports and encourage others in your organization to do the same.
Do you have the software you use listed somewhere to aid job applicants or to steer people familiar with that software toward you?
It's not directly aimed at your particular situation, but I created a list of ways for non-programmers to contribute:
The original list can be found here.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
I support open source software by making fun of various open source packages on slashdot. That encourages the developers to create better software.
Some of your non-programming products that you do for an agency may be of values to others. Even well supported programs like OpenOffice could use more examples, templates, artwork, tutorials, help files, etc.
of well written bug reports and RFEs for the projects/products you find useful.
Perhaps you can collect small bits of usability data from your end users and present cases for improvement.
While "Nothing says thank you like cash(tm)" it isn't the only option.
amusing captcha "sharing"
You could always send naked pictures of your wife to the developers, I'm sure they would appreciate that.
Just by the act of using OSS in government operations is helpful to the community in ways that are indirect but powerful. First, you're helping to preserve the open nature of the government through using technology that can be reviewed on demand by anyone, without having to get permission from a corporation with private interests. Second, by using OSS, you are saving money for your taxpayers by not exhorbitantly paying for upgrades and fixes to remain current. Third, you are representing a model of successful OSS deployment to other government agencies, which may lead to those agencies to switch to OSS in tight budget conditions. Through a long-term leaching effect, as more and more agencies use OSS, more money is freed up for other activities, including social services and projects that affect developers and the larger population alike, and technology grants may be made available over the long term that will benefit OSS projects. These arguments have been made before, time and time again, but reminders serve a purpose to express gratis for past efforts, and reinforce the drive to continue producing great works.
It's been a long time since I've seen grammar as good as yours in/on/around a /. FA.
By all means YES!, write documentation for your favorite project.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
You may not be allowed to directly simply give money to OSS. Many OSS projects offer prefered "development direction" for donors, though. If you want a feature in a certain tool, get into contact with the maker and see whether the project offers this option.
You're not simply giving money away. You are buying a feature. A feature that will be publically available and not exclusive to you, that's a given, but then again, I thought government spending was supposed to be done to make the public benefit from it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Go to a government agency conference and do a presentation. Talk about how open source has saved you money, eliminated licensing headaches, etc etc. Show some charts.
From http://www.gnu.org/:
“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”.
Ask the software creator what is his suggested price is, and mark it as "payment for software", not as "donation" in the books. It's that simple.
Take a couple of hundred dollars out of petty cash (call it software licensing) and donate it to those projects.
Damn, dude... at least read the first line of the summary:
That means we can't donate money, because it's a 'gift of public funds.'
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Attend a conference for your organisation - maybe a local govt conference or such like and evangelise for FOSS; people will believe your experiences much more than that of vendors and often local govt managers like to see proof from other similar organisations of FOSS success.
Also, donate to the FOSS projects you use - get your manager to do so.
The best thing you can do is internal advocacy. Keep reminding people how this "open source stuff" has helped deliver projects on time and under-budget (if it has). Keep reminding managers how well they've done to save taxpayers' money. By helping to change attitudes of management and raising the visibility of OSS to other stakeholders, you're making it easier for the next project for which OSS could be considered.
Always remember though that the business case trumps all. Just make sure that your business case includes all the relevant factors (TCO, maintainability, flexibility, ...) in which OSS often shines. If your business case for OSS doesn't stack up for a particular project - then don't push it. You are an advocate for doing your own job for your own company the best way possible - this may often mean using OSS. You are (most probably) NOT paid to be an OSS zealot or fanboi.
This is a common mistake people make -- I can't program therefore I can't contribute to open source.
There are so many other things involved in getting software out: project management, graphic design, testing, training, documentation, advocacy, support, system administration, bug triage, design, architecture, translation (from *AND TO* your language), releases, etc...
Surely there's something you can do to help...
Pick some of your favorite projects, pick what you like to do that could help them, and look for opportunities to help out. Chances are it will be very well received.
Sean
Here's the single biggest way you can help most open source projects, especially the relatively small ones: be active on the forums and help to answer questions from less experienced users. I run several open source projects, and user support can really cut into the time I have for developing them. Every time a user posts a helpful answer to another user's question, it means I don't have to do it myself, which means I can spend that time coding instead.
Bug reports and feature requests are also useful. Learn to write good bug reports: the more precise and detailed, the better. A report that says, "Feature X doesn't work," is much less useful than a report that says, "Load the attached data file, select the 'Vaporize' command, and note the lack of an earth-shattering kaboom when you click OK."
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Simply listing ALL software that is used, the vendor and the cost. This is then not an endorsement, simply informing the public.
If it happens that alot of the software is open source and cheap, then that is just fact; not endorsement.
Just my $0.02
err!
jak.
BEER!!!
I assume that you have a web site for that government agency? While you cannot say you use open source software to save tax money, or even donate to open source projects, what you can do is use open source file formats on your agency web site for when you give out government documents. Save them in OpenOffice.Org and ODF format as well as RTF and MS-Word format, claim you are doing so for "accessibility" to many different types of software. If you have an audio file use MP3 and OGG formats, etc.
Ask your boss about beta testing software, if he says yes you can beta test the many open source projects. You don't need to be a programmer to be a beta tester. Tell your boss you are "evaluating" possible software your agency can use in the future to save money. I am sure he will say yes to that. While you cannot endorse open source software, you can test it.
Write user manuals and documentation for open source software, tell your boss you are writing "training manuals" to make the software better understandable. Use an open source license on the manuals and documentation so that open source organizations can use your words and modify them to make better manuals and user documentation. Write some eBooks in PDF and ODF and RTF format and submit them to Legal Torrents from your home system, not your work system. Wikibooks is another place to write those books in provided you learn HTML codes and Wiki markup. But if you do join, send me a message and I can try to help you out. I have Wiki markup and HTML and XML skills and I am glad to teach it to someone willing to learn or at least find Internet web sites that can help out on that matter.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Instead of buying "support" which you may not necessarily need. Etc etc. Another option would be convincing your boss to hire a programmer directly or indirectly. Who will then be tasked to do work on the open source softwares which you use. Thusly his primary job will be to fix bugs you are experiencing and improve the software itself. So while support money often can be going some phone guy or something in who the hell knows where? You now contribute to open source and have create a new job to fill. Which in this economy... *take a shot* that's a good thing.
It would be nice if all software produced at government agencies would be available as open source applications for download. Then another agency trying to solve a similar problem or a company trying to write similar software could base their work on these open source apps. After all, that software is written with tax money and should be available to save tax money in other places or to be used by the tax payers if they wish to.
You can go there and donate directly - the funds are used to buy blankets and food for already out of work engineers to develop more free software in their new found spare time... this in turn puts more engineers out of work... Its a great charity - donate today!
I don't know if there is some crazy rule in the state that you work for, but in most governments there is nothing wrong with "endorsing" a product. Open source has received the endorsement at some of the highest levels of the federal government. I could directly point to many executives within the DoD that have specifically endorsed open source software.
Does the SW that you use need to be extended for your work environment? Do you need a key improvement in terms of speed or utility? If so, then write up a req. for consultant work to extend the SW for your purpose. Make certain that the original developer is contacted about the contract opportunity.
If the contract goes to another bidder, the work will still be a derivative of open source SW and the contractor must needs give you the source... Send the new extension's source to the author (if he's interested).
Convince your boss that the best softwares are most expensive ones. And if you find the software you use quite good, you have to pay it high....
Are you asking how you can personally contribute or how you can contribute government resources? For personal contribution, many projects accept monetary donations. If you're asking how to divert gov't resources to such projects, I would like to remind you that that probably isn't something you're supposed to be doing.
I like the idea of government-funded development open source software.
Not for charity, not Stallman's open source tax, but when the resulting software fulfills a specific government requirement.
This way the tax dollars don't just go to some company in the form of licenses, but the results of the government spending are given back directly to the people in the form of code and a (hopefully) better free application for them to use.
I've been annoyed at the government's use of proprietary formats since some moron at the IRS made wrapped some PDFs in a self extracting ZIP file. The linux tools at the time (the was in the 90s) didn't work well enough, and I had to work around it all. Now days most data files in closed formats have open source viewers, but not all. My son's school uses a bunch of MS only crap and I can't stand it. I have a MS netbook just so he can view everything. If you have any say in how the data is presented, format everything in a linux friendly way.
Likewise, keep IE specific junk off of your webserver.
I also liked someone else's idea of doing a writeup of how much you save annually by not buying close source tools. This can help others in Government/Corporate America make the case of switching to Linux. And any publicity is good publicity.
- doug
Individually join a local Linux User Group. You will discover ample opportunities over time to contribute.
From what I know from firends who have worked with state/federal agencies most work done out of the agency requires them to accept bids for work. Meaning a number of companies or people bid on the projects to get this work. Its done this way so there can (nor should there be) any endorcement.
When projects come up conact known open source groups, companies etc that there are bids for the available work. Yes you wont be contributing directly to the projects, but you could get the developers making cash with allows them to offer more to the projects they are working on.
TruePunk | Games
If you are in government, you really should explore the Metagovernment project and its affiliated suite of open source projects.
I'd say documentation would be the most helpful(or translation if you're fluent in another language) way to contribute. I've found that a lot of open source projects are harder to use simply because I'm not used to them(i.e. Linux may be 10x better than Windows, but people are used to Windows, so a lot of those benefits aren't seen or noticed). So if you're using OpenVPN now instead of ____ and you understand it pretty well, consider writing really basic guides with every step detailed. This is something you can share with your colleagues and with the community as a whole.
I'm pretty bad at a lot of Linux based stuff right now, but whenever I find a well-written guide it saves me hours or days of frustration. Just be very detailed(leaving off a step means the person following the guide will leave it off too, and then they'll be left scratching their heads) and don't assume they know anything. That's the biggest problem I find with a lot of open source things. They're pretty simple to use, they're free, and they might have a mailing list or forum where you can ask for help, but documentation is more like reading about what it can do, instead of reading how to do something. And when there are guides for doing something they often leave off key things or gloss over them.
You deserve one.
So maybe you can take a few in the rear for the team.
Some states are so well-endowed that they don't need to take any money from anyone, forcibly or otherwise.
If you don't like the taxes your democratically-elected representatives have elected to collect, you should move to one of them.
I piss off bigots.
From too many years in the bureaurocracy (incl the WH), my experience is that it helps to point out that higher up on the food chain, they're doing exactly that. Like:
See the WH implementation of Open Source Drupal at http://drupal.org/node/375843
See DoD's activities re Open Source at http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/02/department-of-defense-launches-open-source-site-forgemil.ars
The very use of a product constitutes endorsement, unless you claim you are just testing the product, your continued use of it constitutes endorsement, and yet not having the honesty to accept it!
Like somebody else said, you should talk about it in conferences and, I'd suggest blog about it.
But... the future refused to change.
If you're interested in software freedom then I will assume you're also interested in a much more important freedom: the freedom of people. The main way to protect our liberties in this day and age is to advocate for a much smaller government. You probably won't like hearing this, but the chances are that the government department you work for should not exist. Unless is makes more money than it consumes, then it is funded by forced wealth redistribution.
That must have been one heck of a microwave. Back in a previous life, I worked for the State of Ohio. You had to go through a bidding process for things that cost $1K or more. (That may be different nowadays but that was the way things were back in the '80s. And it was amazing how many quotes for $980 or $995 you would get from suppliers; they knew the rules as well as we did.) For a microwave oven, we probably would have taken up a collection in the department. (We actually had a microwave back then. Wonder how it was paid for? I doubt it cost a grand, though.) I know that when I was in grad school, a bunch of us collected the money for a decent coffee maker for the lab; no bidding process required. :^)
We had to deal with approved vendor lists as well. They work as long as the people who made the list of vendors knew what they were doing. Back in the day when 8-inch floppies ruled the earth, there were as many formats as there were manufacturers (it seemed). After three failed attempts to use the approved vendors to get a single stinking box of floppies that would work in a PDP-11 floppy drive -- with each attempt taking about ten days from placing the order through the arrival of the wrong media -- I ordered some from the office supply store we walked past on the way back from lunch. Accounts payable was going to refuse to pay the store because they weren't "on the list". After we explained that they were holding up a federally funded research project, they backed off and paid the invoice.
As for bids, I doubt that they must accept the lowest bid. There was an established procedure we could go through to justify selecting a bid that was not the lowest cost. We didn't use it often because it was a pain to write up the justification but it was possible. Again, times may have changed so my experience may not apply any more. And California's budgeting process is infamous for being impossible to deal with. Ohio's may be just as bad now as far as I know.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Contribute by making new slashdot GNU icon, the one they have now looks like a turd.
Your state obviously doesn't have any problem paying cash money for the closed source software you use, the precedent is set, so you *could* pay at least some directly to the open source/free developers for customization, bug fixing and consultation services, for the stuff you get from them.
Just because it is offered free as in beer, doesn't mean you have to be a complete cheapskate about it, you'd still be saving a lot over closed source, always must pay the big bucks software, so I can't see your bosses beef here. You don't donate, you *contract for services*. In your entire budget, they couldn't come up with a grand or two to offer for those contracted services, directly to the devs? I mean, hire them, real part time. Figure out how much using the FOSS stuff is saving you, a ballpark, and even 5 or 10% there would be a lot more than zero to those devs, plus get their stuff working a lot better for you (and everyone else).
Cash money is a spiffy motivator it is
With that side..side issue..there are a thousand linux distros out there, but I have yet to see the one I want. I haven't seen a really *fair* one yet.
I would like a once a year to every three years release distro, with a smallish but reasonable amount of apps, (as in, please not 15 media players, like pick one and stick to it, etc) and pay for that sucker, so it *works*. Cash money is a good inducement for bug fixes over yet more eyecandy, for human non nerd readable actually helpful documentation over cryptic man pages first written in punch card days and barely updated since then. And etc. Take it professional in other words.
Not a huge sum, but above free like it is now and below what microsoft and apple charge, call it maybe 50 bucks per release, and no way every six months, that just leads to perpetual betaware, stuff breaks as much as it gets enhanced every time that way. The distro maintainers/releasers would do profit sharing with the devs for the included apps, say half and half.
This gets rid of the lame "micropayments" problem, so that people could help support that which they really like and use.
Many authors of open source software (particularly smaller cases) will only ever experience a limited range of situations, which will influence the design.
People who have only ever worked in large corporations will make things overly complex to configure, people who only work in startups may undervalue documentation and reporting (I'm making hugely vast generalisations here).
One valuable thing you can contribute is your experience using that software in government. You understand the nature of government and its priorities probably a lot better than the original developers.
Contribute bug reports, feature requests, and commentary (ideally into proper bug/feature tracking systems) that address specific areas of interest to government.
Open Source developers love it when they hear their work is being used in interesting real-world scenarios, and your experience with government can suggest directions they might otherwise not have considered, or have underprioritised in the past.
Wait, you lost me. When did he say he works for a government agency run by hippos?
Help with documentation.
Give presentations about the solutions you have and how you have saved much money with these open source apps.
Tell open source vendors whose apps you use, that it was very helpful, and why, so they can sell to similar government offices.
Tell colleagues and people in other offices about it.
Keep track of how much you are spending for commercial, and for open source software. Later write a report on cost of ownership.
ha ha ha - some of these comments about being careful with money are *so uninformed* I live in a big state in the US. It was recently in the paper that our state has spent over $1 BILLION dollars on sfwr systems that DON'T WORK.. Thats right, not a billion total, I am saying, just the ones in the spotlight for not working!! Guess where they are located? In the finance sector.. Writing checks, accounting, getting money, etc. Systems that are in either complete or partial FAIL - +$1 BILLION. and the OSS people scrape together a trac instance..
the world is so out of balance.. all these smart commenters have no clue..
This list is good, but it can also be used as a jumping off point. For example "submit bug reports". That is one thing you can do, but there are a lot of bug-related things you can do. Bugs are reported to the wrong place, bugs are reported with little information etc. Someone doing the grunt work dealing with that takes the load off of developers who can be doing higher level work.
Also, I wouldn't sell myself short on coding ability. Say someone files a bug that something that worked for them in version 2.3 is now broken in version 2.9. You can go through the versions and see which was the last working version - this saves the developers time in having to do that. You can even go through each code commit between versions and see which one broke the functionality - this will save developers even more time. You can do a lot of grunt work to narrow down problems for developers without even really understanding how the code works.
A government agency can't pay for something that is not really going to be provided. That is, if the $1000 is going to get them no support, then someone is going to raise a red flag.
Buy support, but not necessarily from the company who produced the software. Often, those companies have decided to release 2 versions of the software, yet still get called Open Source. It's almost like turning into an Obama democrat ... after the fact.
I could name-names, but why. If the code used for the "enterprise" version doesn't match the code used for the "community edition", I have issues with the company. If the enterprise modules don't eventually end up in the community edition, that's another way to know they are less than ideal OSS companies.
Look at OpenNMS - the same code and tools are provided to everyone. Nice. There support pricing is posted and reasonable for what you're actually getting.
Give a presentation at a conference or seminar demonstrating your use. It's a win for the agency and for the projects you use.
The UofU is a public school of higher education *and* it has an ubuntu mirror. Very cool. Check them out and ask around to see how they did it. Considering the conservative leanings of the electorate in this state, someone should be complaining about that mirror, but I don't see it happening.
Hope that helps.
The diversity and expression of human opinion is essential to human survival.
That you're saving taxpayer dollars is good enough, really.
If you're feeling especially altruistic giving the authors of the projects you use some feedback on what features would help your organization use the open source software more effectively is normally well received and a wise developer values such feedback more than cash.
Many of us developers (open source or otherwise) have experiences that only covers a few industries and when we stray too far from those areas the needs and desires of users in other industries becomes a mystery to us.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Expose Open Source for the charity work that it really is.
You can convince your state to allow open source contributors to get tax deductions based on their hourly contributions at their usual rate of pay, up to %10 of their annual income.
Even if it's not money that's flowing, help the community around the product by reporting issues, making suggestions and giving others a helping hand. This makes the software better and the community around it more sustainable and welcoming. In fewer words, don't just be a 'consumer'.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Q: How Can I Contribute To Open Source? :)
A: By RTFM
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Link.
Only one Linux, and that their pet from Novell - and only with one processor per guest. Yeah, that's cross-platform. And for client operating systems there's five versions of Windows and nothing else.
And then there's the licensing. If you're using more than one Windows guest you had better be running Windows Datacenter (and the required SA) on the host or you're a filthy pirate and the BSA will be along presently to audit your books. Even if you keep that straight, if you fail over you have to wait 30 days to fail back because of the licensing.
No thanks.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Especially the comments about "gifts" dazzle me. Do you view a free open source program as a gift to the government? You can see it as a gift to humanity, so also a gift to government. On the other side, you could see it as "part of nature": free for anyone to pick up, but not given by anyone.
When you see it as a gift, is it automatically seen as a potential bribe? In that case, government would be forbidden to use anything that is open source and free of charge. That would surely not be a good thing.
In fact, many open source programs already form an alternative to the monetary system, and the anti-bribe rules do take into account that bribes are not necessary money.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Contributing to OpenSource shouldn't be all about $$$.
Money is needed, but there are other things.
Contributions could also be in the form of:
- Detailed bug reports.
- Usage feedback, including suggestions for improvements (new features, etc).
- User support via helping answer questions within project forums.
- Helping with language translations.
- If you're artistically inclined; helping with GUI art (buttons etc).
There are more requirements to an open source project than just coding & money.
Why not employ someone to work on one of the projects you appreciate? Ideally, someone who already works on it.
FOSS needs good documentation at this point more than anything else. There are dozens of superb FOSS applications out there which are almost unusable by all but experienced, technically knowledgeable users due to impenetrable and/or overly sparse documentation. New users, particularly new users migrating from Microsoft Windows, have neither the time nor motivation to learn the somewhat arcane terminology of man pages, nor to view one application's man page, then spend a day or so going through the same process in respect of another application that the first application's man page references (and so on, often ad infinitum). Quality documentation written for non-technical users to be able to follow and understand is essential if FOSS is to make further inroads into the Microsoft installed base. If you have technical authors, or ordinary users who are keen on and understand FOSS and have above average documentation authorship skills and a few hours to spare, I am sure that many FOSS projects would be delighted to hear from you.
Get a group together and host classes for creativity with free computer programing in the many libraries in nearly every community...if you have that much moneys...but maybe it wouldn't cost much? I don't see too much innovative changing going on in the world.
I concur.
State of GA has a system in place similar to that. In fact, we actually put something out to bid then used a quote we had because none of the bids came back beating that price. Then if we want to fill out paperwork for sole source or sole provider we don't necessarily have to put it out for bid.
But office supplies? You guys must not be ordering from Staples. We just log on to the site, pick what we want (state contract prices), get no-extra-charge next day shipping and it gets billed to our purchasing card. Everyone's purchasing card gets examined with a fine tooth comb every month. And we have pencils, whichever ones we damn well please.
If you use a piece of FOSS software that lacks a feature you need, hire one of the project's developers to add that feature and contribute it back to the project.
This is great because:
1) You get the feature you need for a low, one-time cost
2) If it's added back to the main project, it simplifies your future installations
3) You help the project to continue development, which again benefits your organization in the future
4) This use of taxpayer money goes to create something that all citizens can use. Public dollars for public benefit.
Your boss lets you PAY MONEY to deliberately expose your company's data systems to cyber-gangsters?
Afterall, OpenBSD assures it's users there was precisely one remote vulnerability in the last release. How many in the current release? AHAHAHAHA
I'd like to reframe the question as above.
We use OSS where I work (uni.) but a lot of it is through the back door. When our CIO started he disparaged OSS so that the mgr's were wary of suggesting/promoting it. Yet in all the hallway conversations people are pushing it and it has become a significant proportion of our infrastructure, but I do not think it gets the support it deserves.
The vendors get the money but we use OSS/Free software when it is appropriate. So the question I’ve been pondering is how to get the org. to recognize this increasingly obvious fact through more financial support for the projects that are really making a difference.
Of course one big question is: when is OSS/Free software appropriate? Often we rely on vendors because they provide a complete solution where the alternatives just don’t measure up. It’s hard to argue against a COTS solution here, but I feel it often abdicates responsibility for a solution in favor of a check box against the problem.
I have never heard of anyone taking any non-trivial (hello world) piece of software and being 100% happy with it as-is. The neat thing about Free Software is that you can actually get the maintenance that you want. So if you're doing that in-house, just make sure you offer your changes back. Or hire someone to add the things that you want. That's not a gift; that's quid-pro-quo. And while it may sound expensive at first, I have heard of governments spending outrageous amounts of money just buying updates for proprietary software, and it's just blindly accepted. There's no reason that same money (or a fraction thereof) can't be spent on targeted we-want-this-feature maintenance instead.
Then do an implicit endorsement, like most Microsoft users do. If they can put MS Word .doc files on their webservers and email attachments (the message being, "If you don't use proprietary (specifically Microsoft) products, then FUCK YOU!"), then you can use standardized formats instead, and the counter-message ("If you don't use proprietary products, that's ok") will be clear even though it's implicit.
Another thing you can do is Not Worry. Even if you don't fund Free Software, when you use it, at least you're not funding proprietary software or locking your users into it. Abstaining from creating a harmful network effect, can be viewed as a positive thing in itself. Yeah, this is weak and indirect, but it's something.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I don't know exactly what you do, but if you have any files for download you can put them up in ODT and PDF format, and then have a link which says "These files are available in PDF format and ODT format. Many computers have software which can read PDF files; if yours does not, you can download it from Adobe (throw in a link). ODT files can be opened using many programs which are also available for free, including AbiWord, OpenOffice.org, and which can be downloaded from here. All of these programs can be used in Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X, Linux, and BSD.
Another thing you might do is have a "compatibility page", in which you have FAQ-type stuff of the form "Q: If I want to send you an electronic file, what format should I use? A: We use OpenOffice.org, which can read files in many formats, including the standard ODT format as well as things such as Microsoft Word format."
Dunno if any of that helps you or not.
SymbolNOBODY:
You said what's quoted below from you, here -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1476008&cid=30428430
"It's tolerated (perhaps encouraged) in part because these annoying actors are otherwised engaged in improving Linux. Major Debian and BSD contributors, for example, use slashdot as a workspace for their human-machine interaction side experiments, of which APK is probably one. In addition many of these trolls post links which, if you follow them, will completely hose a Windows machine. This is part of the game. - by symbolset (646467) on Monday December 14, @01:15AM (#30428430) Journal
I took offense to the BOLDED part... & ALL you EVER seem to have is "ad hominem" based attacks on people, not the points they make. So, my reply in the URL below was simple (and logical):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1476008&threshold=-1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&pid=30428430#30430244
Additionally, "symbolNOBODY"? Well - the day you can make something like this (& that got you PAID for it, & that has done as well for others online):
http://www.tcmagazine.com/forums/index.php?s=b861a743aa23c4568b7d73e07ef7ecec&showtopic=2662
That's also gone over 250.000 views worldwide in 1++ yrs.' time online, & across 15 forums where that guide for Windows Security has been made either an:
1.) "Sticky/Pinned" thread
2.) An "Essential Guide"
3.) Rates 5/5 stars (etc.)
AND, gets "feedback" like this from users that have applied it:
----
http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28430
PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"...recently, months ago when you finally got this guide done, had authorization to try this on simple work station for kids. My client, who paid me an ungodly amount of money to do this, has been PROBLEM FREE FOR MONTHS! I haven't even had a follow up call which is unusual. Now I don't recommend this for the average joe, but it if can work for a kids PC it can work for anything! Now, i substituted OpenDNS and activated the Adult Content filter with them for this kids computer. I know its not perfect, but will catch over 99.5% of said sites."
and
http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=10f9ba9ad5ff990aaae1e7ec91f593a2&t=28430&page=3
"Its 2009 - still trouble free! I was told last week by a co worker who does active directory administration, and he said I was doing overkill. I told him yes, but I just eliminated the half life in windows that you usually get. He said good point. So from 2008 till 2009. No speed decreases, its been to a lan party, moved around in a move, and it still NEVER has had the OS reinstalled besides the fact I imaged the drive over in 2008. Great stuff! My client STILL Hasn't called me back in regards to that one machine to get it locked down for the kid. I am glad it worked and I am sure her wallet is appreciated too now that it works. Speaking of which, I need to call her to see if I can get some leads. APK - I will say it again, the guide is FANTASTIC! Its made my PC experience much easier. Sandboxing was great. Getting my host file updated, setting services to system service, rather than system local. (except AVG updater, needed system local)"
Thronka - forums member @ xtremepccentral.com
----
THEN, when you have done so, on THAT account? THEN, you can talk!
Also?
When you have done all of this as I have over time in this Art & S
Do whatever you can. Documentation, packaging, training, whatever
Consider even just small steps... e.g. posting small examples of using FOSS can help a lot. I use my blog to help NOAA accomplish its mission indirectly. One instance is how to use QGIS to read data directly from a PostGIS database:
Using QGIS to view PostGIS data
Now, how do I convince the NOAA IT folks that QGIS should be on more peoples machines?
SymbolNOBODY, you "TALK A BIG GAME" but, let's see you backup your b.s.: After all, You said what's quoted below from you, here -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1476008&cid=30428430
"It's tolerated (perhaps encouraged) in part because these annoying actors are otherwised engaged in improving Linux. Major Debian and BSD contributors, for example, use slashdot as a workspace for their human-machine interaction side experiments, of which APK is probably one. In addition many of these trolls post links which, if you follow them, will completely hose a Windows machine. This is part of the game. - by symbolset (646467) on Monday December 14, @01:15AM (#30428430) Journal
I took offense to the BOLDED part... & ALL you EVER seem to have is "ad hominem" based attacks on people, not the points they make. So, my reply in the URL below was simple (and logical):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1476008&threshold=-1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&pid=30428430#30430244
Additionally, "symbolNOBODY"? Well - the day you can make something like this (& that got you PAID for it, & that has done as well for others online):
http://www.tcmagazine.com/forums/index.php?s=b861a743aa23c4568b7d73e07ef7ecec&showtopic=2662
That's also gone over 250.000 views worldwide in 1++ yrs.' time online, & across 15 forums where that guide for Windows Security has been made either an:
1.) "Sticky/Pinned" thread
2.) An "Essential Guide"
3.) Rates 5/5 stars (etc.)
AND, gets "feedback" like this from users that have applied it:
----
http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28430
PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"...recently, months ago when you finally got this guide done, had authorization to try this on simple work station for kids. My client, who paid me an ungodly amount of money to do this, has been PROBLEM FREE FOR MONTHS! I haven't even had a follow up call which is unusual. Now I don't recommend this for the average joe, but it if can work for a kids PC it can work for anything! Now, i substituted OpenDNS and activated the Adult Content filter with them for this kids computer. I know its not perfect, but will catch over 99.5% of said sites."
and
http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=10f9ba9ad5ff990aaae1e7ec91f593a2&t=28430&page=3
"Its 2009 - still trouble free! I was told last week by a co worker who does active directory administration, and he said I was doing overkill. I told him yes, but I just eliminated the half life in windows that you usually get. He said good point. So from 2008 till 2009. No speed decreases, its been to a lan party, moved around in a move, and it still NEVER has had the OS reinstalled besides the fact I imaged the drive over in 2008. Great stuff! My client STILL Hasn't called me back in regards to that one machine to get it locked down for the kid. I am glad it worked and I am sure her wallet is appreciated too now that it works. Speaking of which, I need to call her to see if I can get some leads. APK - I will say it again, the guide is FANTASTIC! Its made my PC experience much easier. Sandboxing was great. Getting my host file updated, setting services to system service, rather than system local. (except AVG updater, needed system local)"
Thronka - forums member @ xtremepccentral.com
----
THEN, when you have done so, on THAT account? THEN, you can talk (and, ESPECIALLY about
[citation needed]
Lots of folks could use some clear messaging on Hyper-V licensing, including me. If you've got some nice links that would be handy.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Many open source programs have horrendous documentation. If you can read and write in English (or any other language) and are even remotely capable of reading source code then document it. Parts that you don't understand you can ask the developer to explain it to you. Pick a project you like, e-mail the maintainer and ask if you can contribute documentation.
Most engineers hate doing documentation. It takes up a ton of time that we'd rather spend writing code. If they're smart, they'll love you for it.