[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu and LO in NPO sector

[Errol Goetsch]

Frans, the potential is huge. There are some 110 259 registered NPO's in 
SA, almost all using XP / MS office / outlook, judging by the thousands 
of NPO's in SA over the years I've audited and trained.
Each one exists by submitting proposals and budgeting, capturing data 
and issuing progress reports. The contact list is available by province 
at www.dsd.gov.za/npo/
The value is great. NPO's are struggling. The climb is steep though. 
Current penetration is close to 0.

There is no hostility towards Opensource, just
1) ignorance, lethargy and habit on the side of NPO's (ie human stuff, 
not laws)
2) the unconscious push and pull by the corporates who fund NPO's who 
make MS the standard for receiving proposals and reports etc (with no 
open option)
3) no champion at sectoral level (SANGONET is the closest the sector 
comes to a representative association. It's captured by MS - it gets a 
cut for selling MS and has no opensource initiaitive)
4) no champion at Government level (the office overseeing the sector is 
the NPO Directorate, based in the DSD in Pretoria. It has no IT 
oversight office)

Listers can help by
- if your firm has a CSI programme, approach a CSI officer to promote 
ubuntu/LibreOffice, to the point of specifying opensource in the funding 
agreements
- if your firm has a volunteer programme, offer installation and 
training to the NPO's the firm already sponsors
- spreading the word when you meet a pastor/director/fund raiser etc or 
if you sit on the Board
- inviting donors and NPO's to the next conference (there are about 50 
decision makers that sway the sector)

First prize is a law in the NPO Act. The Act governs NPO and their 
reporting requirements. A clause that requires that NPO's use and 
vendors supply open source - primarily OS and office suite - would give 
opensource a single point of entry into the sector.
Govt is busy on the next draft, so any lawyer able to phrase the 
submission could save the sector millions in fees.



On 2013/08/02 02:34 PM, Frans de waal wrote:
>
>
> On Aug 2, 2013 2:08 PM, "Errol Goetsch" <errol at xe4.org 
> <mailto:errol at xe4.org>> wrote:
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > Anyone working | planning | caring to shift NPO's in SA to 
> Opensource? It burns me to see struggling NPO's wasting $ and 
> SANGONET's pushing MS.
> >
> > regards
> > --
> >
> > --
> > ubuntu-za mailing list
> > ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com <mailto:ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com>
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-za
> >
>
> Would we care to do it? ...Yes
>
> Planning and doing atm...not yet.
>
> It would help if you / anyone one list have more info...which programs 
> do they use, doe you have a specific area in mind etc.
>


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