Ask Slashdot: Easy-To-Use Alternative To MS Access For a Charity's Database?

New submitter danzvash (447536) writes "I'm doing some volunteering for a street kids charity in Senegal, West Africa, and they need a new database to store all their information for the kids, and to help the funding organizations like UNICEF. The charity staff have a few computers running Windows 7. Being a die-hard OSS geek I'm more inclined to knock up a MySQL backend with a Django (or similar) front-end and run the whole thing from a reliable VPS. But it needs to be understandable by the non-geeks in the charity — there is no IT expertise here. Is there anything that can allow me to design and edit databases, tables, and forms but doesn't require an MS license?"

Comments

Re:Donation?

[jeffmflanagan]

>Being a die-hard OSS geek

I guess the root of the problem is the submitter then. The charity needs to replace them with a less-biased person so the best decision can be made, whether that be OSS or a free-or-cheap charity license for Access.

Spreadsheet vs DB

[dowens81625]

My general guidelines, for data storage, Fields A, B, through Z by $X records

is $X > 10,000 records? - If Yes use a DB if No see Next Question

Do I need separate out data by type or access, such as Joe can see Name, DOB, Telephone number, Address, Emergency contact info etc. But Jane should only see Name, and Emergency Contact? - If Yes use a DB if No see Next Question

Will more than 1 user need to write data at to this at the same time? If Yes use a DB if No see Next Question

Will more than have users need to read data from this at the same time or will anyone need to read real time changes data? If Yes use a DB if No see Next Question

If you have answered No to all of the above questions, Then use a spreadsheet.