> Call for participation > > -------------------------- > > Open Research, together with the Open Society Initiative for Southern > Africa, is developing an open source information portal to assist non-profit > organisations throughout Africa to make informed and strategic use of free > and open source software (FOSS). To assist in this decision-making process > Open Research is working on a series of case studies on organisations that > do already use FOSS. The intention is to highlight the challenges, benefits > and obstacles that other organisations might face in adopting FOSS. To this > end Open Research is calling for participation from all non-profit, > governmental and educational initiatives that would be prepared for their > experiences with FOSS to be written up and made available to the broader > community. > > This call for participation is not only limited to organisations working > exclusively with free and open source software, but also to those > organisations that have made a partial switch to either FOSS operating > systems or applications. Likewise the case studies are not limited to > desktop usage. > > If you and your organisation would be willing to participate in this very > important documentation project, please consider one of the following > actions: > > 1 - If you have the capacity please consider writing up your own experiences > using the outline below as a guideline; > > 2 - Alternatively, if you have access to the internet complete the online > form that can be found at > > www.openresearch.co.za/osa/case_study_input.html; > > 3 - Or email your contact details (phone and email) together with a short > description of your organisation and FOSS experiences through to us at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] and we will contact you to collect the relevant > information. > > If you have any questions regarding the development of the open source > portal, this call for participation or Open Research please visit our > website at www.openresearch.co.za or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ====================== > > Case Study Guidelines > ---------------------- > > Summary Box > ------------ > > In this summary section please provide short answers. Space for more > detailed answers is provided for below. > > - Organisation/project name: > - Area of work (eg Aids counselling, ICT implementation, education): > - Open source software used (eg OpenOffice, Apache, Desktop, Linux servers): > - Reason for using open source software (eg Costs, political decision, donor > encouragement): > - Key benefits of using open source software (eg cost savings, viruses): > - Key challenges of using open source software (eg support, compatibility): > - Conclusion (was moving to OSS a good move?) > > ============ > Case Study > ------------ > > In this section please provide as much detail as possible for each section > where applicable to your organisation. > > 1 Overview > ----------- > > - Brief summary of organisation: Area of work, history and involvement > in/with technology. > - Who finances your project/organisation. > - Target community/users/audience. > > 2 Technology overview > ------------ > > - What do you use technology for? (eg 'mainly for administration' or > 'technology specific organisation providing ICT services for development or > support to non-profit organisations') > - Number of PCs in organisation. > - Operating systems used and applications that are key to organisation. (The > OS and applications required for your day-to-day tasks or to fulfill your > mandate.) > - Are your PCs Networked? > - Does your organisation have access to the internet and email? > > 3 - Why does the organisation use open source software? > ----------------------------- > > - Why open source? (financial, community- or donor-driven, or political > decision) Please explain. > - Where do you use open source software? Applications only? Operating system > and applications? Server? Online publishing/Web applications? Explain. > - What particular software does the organisation use in each of these areas? > Why? > > 4 - Benefits/disadvantages of using OSS > ---------------------------------------- > > Please explain in as much detail as you can your experiences with open > source software. Try and highlight the benefits and disadvantages you have > experienced. Things to look at include cost > savings/downtimes/uptimes/viruses/customisation/localisation etc. If you > migrated from another operating system please explain what the main > challenges were in making the move to open source software. Did you have to > make sacrifices (or did you gain) because of the move? > > 5 - Conclusion > ------------------------------------------------ > > Short summary: would you or your organisation recommend moving to or using > open source software? Or would you warn others against it? Did it benefit > your work on the ground or hinder it? > > > _______________________________________________ > Catia_team mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://catia.eyecon.co.za/mailman/listinfo/catia_team >
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