MESSAGE
| DATE | 2002-10-23 |
| FROM | Vin
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] we have some competition...
|
I brought this up before, but was told that handling a large amount of
hardware was out. I'm willing to handle small amounts of hardware (ten or
twenty boxes and associated peripherals) if someone else can streamline the
software install, to turn the boxes into diskless terminals, or other usable
workstations. Now that NYLXS is working toward non-profit status, NYLXS can
get donated equipment easier. I'll handle more as we streamline the
procedure.
Anyone want to work on creating a program where we accept donated equipment,
then install a turn key Gnu/Linux solution for non-profits, or other
organizations/companies at low cost?
We can get Gnu/Linux into local schools in the outer boroughs (Nassau,
Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland) and into private schools with ease, if we
offer the turn key solution. Also, getting into the schools will bring more
equipment donations, and more publicity, and is more likely to get Gnu/Linux
into NYC schools once we get the outer boroughs.
Vin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Schools are the key.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Wednesday 23 October 2002 12:58, Ray Connolly wrote:
> New York Times
> October 21, 2002
> A Boon for Nonprofits With Software Needs
> By LAURIE J. FLYNN
>
>
> AN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20 - If these are lean times for corporate information
> technology purchasers, what is the situation for nonprofit groups that need
> new hardware or software? Surprisingly good, as it turns out.
>
> Despite the moribund information technology economy, the nonprofit sector
> may actually be benefiting from the slump - as companies like Microsoft see
> donations as a way of helping keep their products in widespread use, and as
> large numbers of otherwise unemployed hardware and software professionals
> demonstrate a new willingness to take jobs in the nonprofit community.
>
> At the Family Stress Center, a county-financed nonprofit family services
> agency in Concord, Calif., Paul Bongiovanni has the task of continually
> updating the computer system that keeps the agency running.
>
> That is a challenge because the center serves 7,000 clients a year
> throughout sprawling Contra Costa County, 30 miles east of San Francisco.
>
> The agency, which offers programs for the prevention and treatment of child
> abuse, operates on a budget of only about $2 million. And with 70 or so
> full- and part-time counselors and administrators to pay, that leaves
> little left to spend on the latest version of Windows software, say, or on
> installing additional high-speed Internet lines.
>
> But through a relatively new online software store for nonprofit
> organizations called DiscounTech, Mr. Bongiovanni, the center's business
> manager, is able to buy leading software like Norton Antivirus and
> Microsoft Office XP for about 10 percent of the original retail price. That
> means instead of paying the $500 or so he might spend on each copy of the
> Microsoft Office XP suite of word-processing, scheduling, spreadsheet and
> other applications, Mr. Bongiovanni pays only a $60 administrative fee to
> CompuMentor, the nonprofit organization in San Francisco that created
> DiscounTech. That way, he said, the agency can spend its money on
> technology consultants, instead of software, to get the most out of the
> technology.
>
> DiscounTech was introduced in February by CompuMentor, which has been
> offering computer consulting at discounted rates to other nonprofit groups
> for 15 years, primarily in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley.
>
> The advent of DiscounTech, which is available nationwide, has clearly
> struck a chord with nonprofit organizations, which in the past have had to
> rely on a hodgepodge of grants, direct donations and assistance from a
> variety of foundations to pay for new technology. Or they have simply done
> without.
>
> That had been the experience, for example, of Mark McNeil, information
> technology director of the nonprofit Economic Opportunity Council, a social
> services agency in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Before DiscounTech, Mr. McNeil
> said, he would typically contact Microsoft and other companies directly to
> request specific product donations.
>
> "Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but it always took a lot of
> effort," said Mr. McNeil, adding that he had also received donated software
> through Gifts in Kind, an organization that helps match donors of various
> sorts with nonprofit groups.
>
> But not until DiscounTech came along, Mr. McNeil said, did he find it
> possible to use the most current versions of leading programs, like
> Microsoft Office XP and Symantec's antivirus software.
>
> "Our organization has to run pretty lean," Mr. McNeil said. "Now for every
> four licenses of Microsoft Office we save enough to buy another computer."
>
> Rebecca Masisak, the director of DiscounTech, hopes to start offering
> discounted computers and networking technology by the end of this year,
> though many of the details have still to be worked out. Once a DiscounTech
> customer has installed the purchased technology, the user can then turn to
> CompuMentor for discounted consulting services, online bulletin boards and
> an informational Web site for nonprofits called TechSoup.
>
> CompuMentor's original charter - to match volunteers, or mentors, in the
> technology industry with nonprofit agencies - is still a large part of the
> organization's focus. But the current one-stop approach marks a coming of
> age for CompuMentor. It was founded in 1987 by Daniel Ben-Horin, a former
> journalist, who set it up with a $2,500 grant from a local foundation.
>
> "I thought I'd do it for about a year," Mr. Ben-Horin said. Considering the
> enthusiasm for technology at the time, he said, "it seemed like a
> no-brainer" to match computer programmers and consultants with agencies in
> need of their specific services. But keeping his own nonprofit afloat
> proved to be more challenging than he had expected.
>
> In the last decade, Mr. Ben-Horin said, the organization has come close to
> bankruptcy more than once. But it is now on firmer footing, as it receives
> financing from Microsoft and AOL Time Warner, along with the Surda
> Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the
> Kellogg Foundation. CompuMentor is also the Bay Area affiliate of the
> national network of technology assistance providers, called the NPower
> Network, that Microsoft founded several years ago.
>
> CompuMentor has benefited somewhat in the last year from the demise of the
> local Internet economy in San Francisco. For one thing, Mr. Ben-Horin has
> been able to find spacious offices in a converted warehouse once occupied
> by a Web company. And he has seen the caliber of job applicants rise, as
> layoffs sent talented Internet entrepreneurs, project managers and
> designers looking for their next projects.
>
> Recently, for example, CompuMentor received 500 applications for a single
> editor job on TechSoup. CompuMentor now employs about 65 people in roomy
> offices in the southern end of San Francisco once known as Multimedia
> Gulch.
>
> For software companies, CompuMentor's DiscounTech simplifies the process of
> donating to numerous small and midsize nonprofit groups - a disparate array
> of clinics, community service agencies, homeless shelters and other
> organizations.
>
> Microsoft, which began distributing a limited selection of programs through
> CompuMentor, has now made DiscounTech one of the company's largest donation
> outlets.
>
> In its fiscal year 2002, which ended on June 30, Microsoft donated $25
> million in software through DiscounTech, accounting for about one of every
> eight of the company's software donations, according to Bruce Brooks,
> Microsoft's director of community affairs.
>
> This fiscal year, Microsoft expects to use DiscounTech to donate $30
> million of software.
>
> For Microsoft and other software companies, having their products widely
> distributed, even at steep discounts or for free, can be a way to raise
> visibility - a tax-deductible form of marketing.
>
> "There's a definite market-recognition factor in the nonprofit sector,"
> agreed Eran Goren, vice president of business development at Ontero
> Software, which donates its Web portal program called InfoCentral. "And
> it's a sector that definitely has a need."
> ____________________________
> New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
> Fair Use -
> because it's either fair use or useless....
____________________________
New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
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