I'm really pleased to announce that NOSI has become a project of the organization Aspiration.

There will be more details and info coming over time, but below is the press release.

San Francisco, CA - Aspiration and NOSI announced today that NOSI will become a project of Aspiration . Since 2003 NOSI has provided the nonprofit sector with information and education designed to help nonprofits leverage the benefits of using free and open source software (FOSS) in their work. As the author of the groundbreaking “Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software: A Primer for Nonprofits,” NOSI provides nonprofit staff and decision-makers with both tools and information, allowing them to assess free and open source software's capacity to support the needs of their organizations.

The merger will allow the two organizations to focus their collective energies on growing free and open source capacity in the nonprofit sector, working with developers, integrators, and end users. A number of open source tools, including the Firefox web browser, the CiviCRM platform, and a range of open source web publishing systems, have reached a state of maturity that makes them excellent options for nonprofits. But much work remains to be done in supporting the creation and sustainability of FOSS options in a number of other mission-critical software categories. Aspiration and NOSI welcome the challenge.

Michelle Murrain, NOSI's Coordinator says “Aspiration and NOSI have worked hand in hand over the years to help nonprofit organizations learn about and implement free and open source software. This is a natural fit, and I'm excited to consider the kinds of projects we'll be undertaking together.”

Aspiration Executive Director Allen Gunn says “Aspiration works to see better tools created to support nonprofit missions. While as an organization we strive to be license-agnostic, we see free and open source software as an ever-more critical component of nonprofit technology infrastructure, and NOSI has led the way over the past 5 years in advocating and educating nonprofits and funders about free and open source software. Working directly with NOSI will forward Aspiration's mission of better tools for a better world."

Aspiration and NOSI will immediately turn their focus to the 2008 Nonprofit Software Development Summit, taking place November 17-19 in Oakland, California. The event will provide a venue for the full range of stakeholders in nonprofit software development to meet, share knowledge, discuss pressing issues and strengthen community ties. We encourage anyone interested in nonprofit software to join us for this unique summit.

NOSI will operate as a program of Aspiration, retaining its advisory board and programmatic direction. Michelle Murrain will return to the Aspiration board, with a focus on representing the NOSI community. The organizations will share staff and fundraising capacity, and the new Aspiration will be better able to educate the groups they work with about available free and open source options. This work will be carried out by maintaining the NOSI Primer, enhancing the Social Source Commons, and continuing to host Penguin Days (www.penguinday.org) across the country and around the world.

Aspiration works to connect nonprofit organizations with software solutions that help them better carry out their work. Their events, strategic advising and online resources, including the Social Source Commons, help nonprofit organizations find and use the best software tools available in order to maximize their impact and, in turn, help change the world.
For more information:

Aspiration: http://aspirationtech.org , press@aspirationtech.org
NOSI: http://nosi.net

Joomla is a very easy to use, and quite powerful CMS system. This webinar, which is the first of the series of webinars on open source CMS systems, will take you through the basics of Joomla, and what you'll need in order to make your new Joomla site a success.

This webinar is co-presented by Ryan Ozimek, of PICnet, and Michelle Murrain, of NOSI.

Date: Tuesday September 23rd. 11:00 Pacific/2:00 Eastern

Go to the NTEN site for registration.

Has the time come for Linux on the desktop to be mainstream? It is very easy to set up and use Linux for the organizational basics: email, web surfing, word processing, and spreadsheets. Even more complex tasks, such as desktop publishing, keeping track of finances, and others are possible and a lot easier than they used to be on Linux these days. Linux on the desktop is not just for geeks anymore. This webinar will show you how easy it is to use Linux on the desktop, what situations are best for Linux, and frank talk about when it might not work.

We'll also discuss open source on all kinds of desktops, and where that is progressing.

The webinar is Tuesday, July 29th, at 11:00am PT /2:00 PM ET.

Register now!

It’s becoming de rigeur for organizations, and nonprofit staff to blog. How can you set up a blog with free and open source software? What are the options out there? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different blogging platforms?

Learn about the open source blogging platforms, and hear from an organization that has implemented one.

The next webinar is June 24th, at 11:00 PT/2:00 ET.

Register here

Thursday June 5, 2008, in NYC at Google Headquarters.

Come to the OpenOffice.org "untraining". Spend a day with others who also work with OpenOffice.org, and gain insights into how best to use it, how to solve specific problems, and where to find resources.

* Learn about OOo's unique features, including built-in PDF
export for all types of documents
* Understand how open standards for documents give you long-term flexibility
* See how easy it can be to share documents between OOo, MS Office
and Google Docs
* Explore how others are already using OOo to support their nonprofit productivity
* Get help solving specific OOo questions and issues

There will be demos, small group discussions, as well as problem solving sessions. Bring your laptop (of any kind) and be ready to roll up your sleeves, and dig into OpenOffice.org!

This event is now FULL. Sorry!!

The event wiki is up! Those of you that registered will be hearing from me, probably tomorrow, with more info.