Patrick Carmichael wrote (regarding encouraging Perl use in non-profit
organizations and in the developing world):
>
> Is this an area for Perl advocacy? Or is my choice of software development
> environment for non-profit projects at best incidental and at worst
> irrelevant?
>
I think there are some good reasons why the open source community (I'm still
not quite clear what community this is, but it's sure easy to talk about it)
should promote the use of Perl (and other open source software) for these
organizations.
1. Makes great press. We'd all feel good if we could read about how UNICEF
built software using Perl {Linux, Apache, whatever} that helped them to
work effectively help out faceless masses somewhere.
2. Saves money and effort in the short term (acquiring software). For a
non-profit to legitimately use commercial products without paying, they
need to beg for giveaways from the vendors, which consumes resources the
non-profits could better use elsewhere.
3. Saves money in the long term (support costs). It will be easier to find
capable people who can support an open source software product over time
than a private application build on out-dated versions of commercial software.
4. Eliminates legal & financial barriers to developing useful software
products that can be shared between organizations. Unlike many for-profit
companies, non-profits don't benefit by keeping their software private.
Similar open source software products used across multiple organizations
will benefit all.
5. Expands the number of developers skilled in these tools. There are a lot
of students and recent graduates providing cheap/free labor to non-profits.
If these people are infected with the (benign) open source virus, then
perhaps they will spread it as they move on with their careers.
How's that for a start?
I'm not so sure how to go about advocating Perl to non-profits, not having any
experience in that area.
-Jason
