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Open Source

Open Source is the sensible way forward for development but it has to be as good as commercial services to work.

Tactical Tech and other partners put together a brilliant NGO in a box package for NGOs to get all the open source tools they need. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to get updated as often as it should - And of course you should also get someone a bit technical involved in any implementing any technology. That said the following tools from the pack are recommended by Mainstreaming ICT: -

  • Ubuntu - A nice and simple alternative to Windows as an operating system.
  • Open Office - Fully featured office software for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.  Also works with Open document format which will be a lot more common in the future. That said, in a lot of real offices it pays to set the default document format to MS office 97 format.
  • CiviCRM - The open source Constituent Relationship Management Solution. Designed specifically for NGOs it covers Constituent Interactions, Mailings, Events, SMSing, Contributions and much more. This is recommended for any NGO. Unfortunately the box only seems to contain version 1.7 which is not supported. As of Feb 2009 you should be looking at version 2.1 or 2.2.
  • OrangeHRM - A quality Human Resource Management Application.
  • Firefox - The Best Internet Browser
  • Pidgin - (formerly Gaim) is an instant messaging (IM) client that enables you to chat online in groups or one to one. Pidgin supports a large array of IM services including AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr.
  • Wordpress - For most organisations Wordpress is the Web Site Tool you need. The advantage over Joomla and Drupal is the ease of use and for a lot of people that is the main issue.  Of course if you have experience in Joomla or Drupal in house then it may be better to use the one you know.
  • LimeSurvey - An online survey tool for getting feedback or conducting online research.

Of course there are other Open Source tools that are recommended that are not in the box.

One of these is Filezilla which is a great FTP client. Another is OpenERP which is the most powerful system for rapidly developing new applications.

Of course there are always new developments in the Open Source Space which we will be updating as the needs arise.