I think we decided this week that I will join the NOSI steering committee. Once upon a time, the Non-profit Open Source Intiative was this fantastical thing in the distance. While I was checking facts for House & Garden, there were kids out there actually getting paid to work with organizers, set up Linux desktops in Missouri, debate the merits--pragmatic and philosophical-- of open source software. And now I am smack in the middle of it, asking myself what NOSI ought to be.

(for the wishlist, a "save drafts" option!)

These are thoughts that I have: what are the ways in which Open Source Software matters (to non profits? at all?) How do those differ. Is there value in speaking pragmatically about vulnerability and reliability independant of the more basic values of collaborative development? I am interested in open source software because I believe that things can be accomplished collaboratively, and that intellectual property is a dangerous concept, one that does more harm than good (ahhh, like so many kinds of property ownership). In principle, it sounds nice to think that you own your ideas, but who has the power to use such ownership to their advantage?

There are a lot of solutions to that question, but one solution is to agree to give up your own exclusive rights in exchange for a guarantee that no one else can claim the same rights to that idea or piece of work.

I think that it is important to point out that part of hte reason people are willing to donate time to developing open source projects is that they know that no one can take it from them.