From the category archives:

Open Source

Open Mobile Camp report

October 25, 2009

Yesterday, I spent the day in Manhattan, at the UNICEF building, with a bunch of folks passionate about the technology in mobile phones, and the ways to use that technology for good. I’ve been a very long time cell phone user (had one since 1998), but I haven’t been involved in implementing a mobile system for an organization, so I had a lot to learn.

The place to find reports on what happend is on the wiki. Also, check out the twitter stream for the #omc09 hashtag.

I was especially interested in the issue of mobile data collection. (I was so interested, I facilitated a session.) And, even more specifically, I’m interested in how to leverage CiviCRM and mobile devices for a range of interesting applications. There are a number of ways to get data from mobile phones into a CRM – and all have advantages and disadvantages, depending on a lot of things.

  • Globally, what you can basically depend on is SMS. Smartphones haven’t made it into most of the developing world, nor have 3G networks. So how do you get SMS data into a database system like CiviCRM? You need an SMS gateway, and systems such as RapidSMS to gather data
  • Use J2ME to write applications for mobile phones, and send the data via SMS to a central database.
  • A tool such as EpiCollect, which is an Android app.
  • A slimmed-down, simplified webform to be used on mobile browsers.

One thing that would facilitate this would be a more robust API system in CiviCRM – access to the data via REST or JSON, which would allow CiviCRM to talk with some of the tools out there like Mesh4X.

I learned a ton. Thanks to MobileActive.org and the Open Mobile Consortium for a fabulous event.

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Diversity and Open Source

August 1, 2009

The python community has started a conversation about diversity, with the ultimate goal of creating basically a welcoming statement. It comes out of Kirrily Robert’s keynote at OSCON about women and open source. There is a cool site from the Ruby community called Railsbridge, and one of their guidelines is to “Reach out to individuals and groups who are underrepresented in the community.”

There has been, of course, a lot said about the fact that although women make up 20% of the tech field, they only are approximately 1.5% of open source communities. There have been long standing groups that have tried to address this, and new efforts as well. Some open source communities are more diverse than others. In her keynote, Kirrily talks about two open source projects, Archive of Our Own and Dreamwidth that have a majority of women involved, which is rather unusual.

A short twitter conversation I had with a colleague brought up the issue of whether or not this is just an exercise – will this actually lead to any lasting change? That’s a good question.

Kirrily has a set of really good guidelines for open source communities:

  • Recruit diversity
  • Say it, mean it
  • Tools (Tools are easy)
  • Transparency
  • Don’t Stare
  • Value all contributions
  • Call people on their crap
  • Pay Attention

As a long time open source user and advocate, even though I am someone who rarely finds people like me in open source projects (i.e other women of color), I’ve always seen the open source movement a potential avenue for the greater involvement of people other than white, straight, young men, because theoretically (this is the important part) one’s involvement in a community is pure meritocracy. But so many open source communities have so far to go when it comes to being welcoming. I’m reminded of sitting in Drupalcon in DC and hearing Dries talk about the “beard length” of the developers. And of course there was the huge brou-ha-ha around a presentation at a recent Ruby conference.

And, of course, there are other factors as well. There are far too few places like The Community Software Lab of Lowell, MA, who’s mission is:

We write, administer and maintain open source software to serve the underserved.
We use and improve the skills of people with underused skills
We work to make hacker sub culture values (transparency, meritocracy and generosity) the values of the entire culture and bring about the post scarcity society.
We work toward our mission by trying to achieve our short term goals transparently and generously while accumulating only necessary wealth.

So what will it take? Will this effort in the python community pan out? I think it’s a great start. I think the first step is definitely a focus on community environment. Is it friendly? Is it welcoming? Is it easy for new developers to start, and get deeper in? Are there good mentoring models? All of that makes a huge difference. And having a statement doesn’t at all guarantee anything, but it provides something people can point to and say “this is our goal.” Better than nothing, and a lot better than many open source communities are doing.

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The wonders of libcloud

July 30, 2009

Here at OpenIssue, we think a lot about the web. I mean, a LOT. And we’ve been thinking a lot about web hosting, and the varied flavors it comes in. We’re working to figure out what makes sense for us to use and implement, and what makes sense for us to recommend to our clients. A while ago, we decided, like many folks, virtual private servers were going to be the preferred hosting set up. Not that it’s right for all organizations – but for many who invest significant dollars into implementation of a website or CiviCRM, the advantages of a VPS will likely outweigh the higher monthly cost.

We started using Slicehost, which was incredibly easy to set up and use, and was acquired by Rackspace, which is considered the premium dedicated server hosting company. I then soon discovered a service called Cloudkick, which allowed us to monitor all of our slices and our clients slices in one dashboard. That was very cool.

It turns out that in the process of creating Cloudkick, the folks there came up with libcloud – a library that service providers could use to give developers access to the services needed by the servers – list, restart, create, destroy, etc. There are now a number of cloud hosting service providers, such as Rackspace cloud servers (used to be Mosso), Slicehost, and Amazon, that are beginning to support libcloud. Libcloud has become it’s own open source project, and is under active development.

Hopefully, this will provide a plethora of options for folks in terms of being able to monitor and manage the varied cloud servers they’ve got going. It certainly has already made our lives a lot easier.

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Why you should care that Oracle is buying Sun

April 20, 2009

In general, the activities of the big tech corporations have somewhat limited and indirect effect on nonprofit technology. For large enterprises, the activities of the big players is a much more immediate and important set of issues to deal with. For us, it’s generally much more removed.

However, today’s news that Oracle is going to buy Sun Microsystems has some very important implications. Why? It has to do with the fact that many, many nonprofit websites and web applications are built using MySQL, the most popular open source database management system. Sun bought MySQL AB (the company behind MySQL) last year for $1 Billion dollars, and therefore, MySQL AB now becomes a part of Oracle, it’s primary competition.

There is some suspicion that there may be anti-trust challenges because of this, but if it goes through, it raises some huge questions about what happens to MySQL because of this. Of course, since MySQL is open source, there is no danger of MySQL going away, someone can always fork it. And, ultimately there is a great open source database alternative called PostgreSQL, but support for it is not universal. However, the future of ongoing support and development for MySQL is certainly in question. Most nonprofits don’t get any support from MySQL AB directly, but larger organizations that might have been getting some support might see changes down the road.

It’s something that those of us who depend on MySQL for our web development projects will be watching quite closely.

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Penguin day comes again

April 9, 2009

I love Penguin Day. One of my favorite days of the year. Always comes right around NTC. This year, it’s before NTC, on Saturday, April 25. It’s a day dedicated to conversation and community around nonprofits and open source software. There’s some great stuff on the Agenda, like:

  • Introduction to Free and Open Source Software
  • Fundraising with all free software
  • Free And Open Source Online Advocacy: Tools And Best Practices
  • Making sense of Free and Open Source Content Management Systems
  • Introduction to Blogging with Wordpress
  • Intro and Advanced sessions on Joomla! and Drupal
  • CiviCRM vs Salesforce.com: What Are the Differences?
  • Mobile Volunteering: The ExtraOrdinaries Project
  • Creative Commons And Open Content
  • And many more…

You can register at Penguinday.org. Thanks to the generosity of Google, we’re delighted to grant fee waivers to anyone who needs one!

I look forward to seeing folks there.

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Drupal security, and other CMS Report comments

April 3, 2009

Now that the Idealware CMS report is out, I get to have my say about it. Here’s the first post, there might be more to come.

The thing that is prompting this post is the little storm about the security metric that we used to try and get a handle on the security of the 4 different systems we reviewed. More on that in a bit.

You might think that comparing four different open source packages that, in essence, do pretty the same thing (in a broad sense) would be a cakc walk. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. The developers of each project have completely different sets of assumptions about what the right way to do things is, and completely different philosophies and ethos when it comes to building interfaces and functionality. Making apples-to-apples comparisons of these systems was one of the most difficult analytical tasks I’ve taken on in a while (and, actually much of the heavy lifting of designing the analysis was done by Laura Quinn), and until you attempt such a thing, please be somewhat tempered in your complaints about it.

Now the security issue. One of the 12 different aspects we are comparing is “Scalability and security”. The report isn’t about security, it’s a very, very broad comparison of the systems, with security as a very small component. That’s just the context. Two (yes, just two) questions out of many relate to security.  First, a simple metric relating to security reports, and second, what processes are in place in the communities to deal with security. This wasn’t designed to be an in-dept, complex analysis of security. If it had been, we would have done a lot more work on how to measure security. On the Four Kitchens blog, they say, “While both reports above seem to identify Drupal (and Joomla! and WordPress, to be fair) as having notably bad [emphasis mine] security, they’re also both based on one superficial metric: self-reported vulnerabilities.” Now I can’t speak about the IBM report (I haven’t even read it yet), but our report says no such thing. Drupal gets a “Solid” on Scalability and security. Solid, which is only one step below Excellent. And you know why it got a “Solid”? Because, indeed, it does have more reported security vulnerabilities than Plone (as do Joomla and WordPress.)

David Geilhufe, who also takes issue with the security metric, has some good points. Yes, sheer numbers of vulnerabilities are not anywhere near the best metric of whether or not a system is secure or not. As a quick comparative look between a small number of open source systems, it’s hard to argue that it contributes no information. Four Kitchens seems to suggest that part of the reason for more vulnerabilities in Drupal compared to Plone is that it’s more popular. But, if you’ve been an observer to the Linux/Windows FUD wars, you’ll remember that Microsoft has that exact same argument about why there are more security vulnerabilities in Windows as compared to Linux. And the Linux folks say, in response, “It’s not popularity, it’s design.” I’m sure  that Four Kitchens, and most open source software developers agree with that perspective. In reviewing Plone, and talking with people who develop for Plone, I was convinced that the reason that Plone had fewer reported vulnerabilities was not just because it was less popular – it’s because it (and Python and Zope) was more secure by design.

I am completely happy with Drupal’s security (otherwise, it wouldn’t have gotten a “Solid.”) I think the Drupal community takes security extremely seriously, and if they didn’t, I wouldn’t have chosen it as a platform for development. I also think that the Joomla and WordPress communities take security seriously. In our estimation, they were all really good. But Plone was just that much better.

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DrupalconDC Final Report

March 10, 2009

It’s been a few days since I got back from Drupalcon, and I’ve had time to let all of the things that happened settle in. It was a great time, and I’m really happy I went.

We had a fabulous (and quite large) nptech/progressive exchange/community organizing BoF. There was a show-and-tell session for nonprofit websites (which I didn’t make it to). I went to some interesting sessions on Ubercart, Organic Groups, and a BoF on Drupal in churches (where I wondered about the theological spectrum, and guessed was populated mostly by evangelicals.)  I met lots of great people, and saw old and new friends.

I think, also, I’ve completely drunk the Drupal koolaid. I’m psyched to be working with Drupal more intensely (I’ve got 4 Drupal projects going at the present moment.) There’s lots of new things to learn, and challenges to face, but I’m excited about digging in a lot deeper. I’m sure I’ll have more to say as time goes on. And I’m looking for good excuses to go to Paris for Drupalcon Paris!

There were lots of great talks, and the videos are up!

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DrupalconDC Report #1

March 5, 2009

At the end of day one, I figured I’d give a little report on how DrupalconDC is going for me. I’m having a good time, and learning a lot.

I went to three pretty intro talks (two of them were a bit too intro for me, but I got a few good tips) and one advanced panel.

  • Themers Toolkit- I’ve only done a few themes, and modified a few, but I guess that was enough for this panel to be too beginner for me. But I did learn a few tricks I didn’t know, so it was useful. It was a good talk.
  • Totally Rocking Your Development Environment – also covered mostly stuff I knew, but I did learn a few tips (and also learned a little from my next door neighbor. It was a great talk by an incredibly enthusiastic speaker. I can’t believe though, that she suggested using Makefiles for Drupal!
  • Organic Groups – since I haven’t personally implemented OG, I didn’t know a lot about the innards, and how it really works. It was a great introduction, and I’m totally sold on it. He gave some sweet examples of it’s use (like teamsugar.com) which is amazing, and made me totally rethink using Elgg.
  • Advanced Theming Techniques -  A nice talk given by two folks from CivicActions, once of whom I’d worked with jointly on a client project. I learned a fair bit, and now have some good techniques to think about using as I start doing more serious theming (although, truthfully, I’d like to eventually be able to hand that off to folks who have a better visual sense than I.)

Dries‘ keynote was fun, and it was great to hear a bit about the history, and also the ideas about where Drupal is going. One thing he said in particular stood out: “Start thinking of the internet as one big machine.” The idea is that as barriers to the movement of data come down, doing things that were never possible before become a lot more possible. And there is some really cool stuff coming in the future like OAuth, Job Queues, RDFa output, XMPP, and Activity logs. Really neat.

I missed a couple of talks I’d wish I could have made, like the Drupal SEO talk, and Install Profiles. I was glad to see that there are a significant number of women here, and a number of women presenters, too.

I hung out with Drupalchix for lunch, and met new folks, saw some colleagues, and generally have been having a good time. I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow.

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New leap for open source CMS vendor

February 26, 2009

Mpower Open, the vendor who took their high-end CRM/DMS product, MPX, open source last year, has adopted a new name, Orange Leap. They have also released two new products, called Orange Leap and the Guru. The combination of Orange Leap and The Guru are a web-based CRM/DMS and reporting system aimed squarely at Salesforce.com and Convio Common Ground. The pricing of the hosted version is definitely competitive.

Orange Leap is possibly going for what is now often called the “Open Core” business model, although it’s not entirely clear. Their new products (as well as MPX) have “community editions”  – mostly they lack services and support, which makes sense. But Orange Leap Community Edition also lacks “Domain specific fields and rules” and “Outbound Enhancements, Business Rules, and Processes”. It’s not actually clear what those are.

There is mention of a “community portal” but it’s not evident anywhere I can find. You need to request a demo of their open source tool, instead of the standard practice, which is creating an open, public demo for everyone to see and play with. On their brand new, quite lovely (and orange) website, as a developer, there is no place to find the software, interact with others, or find a way in. There is no community that is at all visible.

I like very much what these folks are trying so hard to do – provide high-quality, high-end open source applications for the CRM/DMS space. But I’m afraid they are going to be squeezed to a pulp between the behemoths of salesforce.com and Convio, on one hand, and the strong, vibrant open source community of CiviCRM on the other. Their only way out is to build an equally strong, vibrant community of developers and implementors – and that will be an uphill battle.

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My Top 16 tools of 2008

December 26, 2008

These span the range from tools I use every day or every week, to tools use more occasionally, but depend on. They also span the range of proprietary, SaaS, and Open Source. They are on this list because I think they are great, because they have undergone a lot of change or development this year, or because they are game-changing.

Open Source Tools

1. WordPress. I use WP pretty much everyday, between my own blogs, and helping clients maintain theirs. WP as a blogging tool rocks my world, and although I certainly could move blogging to Drupal, since I seem to be becoming somewhat of a Drupalista, it’s just not worth it. WP is clean and easy, and virtually hassle-free. There are lots of really great themes out there, and there just isn’t a reason I can find not to use it.

2. Drupal.  I’m somewhat of a latecomer to Drupal. Having been bogged down with my own open source CMS tool before 2005, then having taken a break from development, I missed out on the prime years of Drupal’s development. But now, here I am, and I’m impressed. It has become arguably the most popular open source CMS, and is a very able platform for creating all sorts of great web applications.

3. Xen. I use this everyday, although I don’t really interact with it much. I am administering and/or responsible for a couple of Virtual Private Servers that use it. Virtualization has really come into it’s own this year, and will continue to be a force to reckon with. I’m betting that in 2009, many folks will move from shared hosting to VPS servers. There are a lot of good reasons to consider this.

4. Songbird. Songbird is a brillant idea: build a music player using the Mozilla framework. Songbird was a buggy mess just a year ago, but with the recent release of 1.0, it’s absolutely an application to get to know.

5. CiviCRM. Oh what a difference a year or so makes. CiviCRM continues to mature, and is providing an interesting and important new model for nonprofit software development. It is becoming more popular, and is also highly recommended by those who use it. I’ve been getting to know it this year, and begun implementing it. I like it more and more.

6. Freemind. This is an awesome cross-platform mind mapping tool. I use it to create sitemaps, mostly, but it’s also great for brainstorming.

7. Elgg. Elgg is the open source social network management system. Install it on your own server, control your own data. Don’t use Ning, use Elgg. It finally looks like a project which will allow me to explore the strength of that platform is coming around the bend. Stay tuned.

8. MAMP. Wanna set up a easy development environment on your Macintosh without struggling with Fink or MacPorts? Use MAMP. Easy, fast, robust, and powerful.

Being a pragmatist, I do use proprietary tools, both the Software-as-a-Service, or basic desktop tool types. I use these tools because I haven’t found open source alternatives for these functions that work as well, or are as user friendly.

SaaS Tools

9. last.fm. I love last.fm. I love discovering new music, seeing what people I know are listening to, and learning more about what I listen to over time.

10. Twitter. This was the year for twitter. This was the year that nonprofits discovered twitter, and the year I integrated twitter into my workflow.

11. Evernote. I haven’t yet become an Evernote devotee, but I might. It’s an online note-saving service, with desktop and iPhone clients. It’s great to be able to take notes on my iPhone on the fly, and know they are saved, and will show up on my desktop when I want them. And it’s great to have my notes wherever I go, without bothering to sync my phone.

12. Intervals. Having tried a variety of project management and time tracking tools over the years, from the open source tools like ProjectPier (used to be ActiveCollab) and GnoTime (abysmal), as well as SaaS tools like BaseCamp, I have finally come across what is, for me, the perfect mix of project management, time tracking, and invoicing. It’s not cheap, but it works well, and saves me so much time invoicing, that it pays for itself several times over every month.

Proprietary Tools

13. Adobe Air, and applications. Adobe Air is an impressive framework for rich internet applications. I use TweetDeck, Twhirl, and the Analytics reporting suite among others.

14. Balsamiq. This Adobe Air application deserves its own entry. (I’ve been meaning to blog about it for a while.) It’s a really great tool for creating very rapid mockups of sites that you are working on. It actually is good enough as a wireframe tool.

15. Coda. Panic software makes really good stuff. Coda is a great editor for developers. I like it better than Textmate, which I know is another popular editor for developers.

16. VMWare Fusion. Even being the semi-religious Mac and Linux desktop user that I am, every once in a while I am forced to use Windows. This makes it tolerable. There’s a nice full-screen view, if I want to really feel the pain. There is also a mode called “unity” which allows you to run a Windows application in a regular Mac window. It’s kinda cool.

So what tools did you come to depend on in 2008?

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