I believe in pro bono work, but with limits and at the cost of my occasionally pressing an agenda on them. A few examples: I do maintenance on the PC's at my mother's church, but do so while promoting the use of free or open source tools and software ( linux, open office, and so on ). The idea is that my time and expertise are free, but they need to foot the bill if they want commercial products because "that's what they're used to at home". Another example: I'm putting together a website for my brother who is an attorney, but am forcing him to have his ideas in place, his content reasonably fleshed out, and otherwise have his act together BEFORE I get 20 hours in on it and He changes his mind. It surprises me how often people fall in love with the idea of something but don't want to take it seriously enough to actually make an effort at preparedness.
All that being said, the pro bono work has had some real benefits for me as a testing ground for new techniques or approaches, as a way to get my name out there, and as a way to gain experience working with people. The work has led to a few smaller paying gigs as well. At this point pro bono work is accepted primarily on two things: how much free time ( ha! ) do I have to work on it and deliver a solid product, and are the people asking willing to do their homework. Dave David Smith Systems Administrator Doan Family of Dealerships (585) 352-6600 ext.1730 [email protected] www.upstatedigitools.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stephen Russell Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 10:11 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [NF] Do you do pro bono work? Here is blog on one guys thoughts on the matter. <http://boagworld.com/personal/never_work_for_free/> -- Stephen Russell Sr. Production Systems Programmer First Horizon Bank Memphis TN 901.246-0159 [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/004101c98c44$212cf8f0$6386ea...@com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
