If you're in the NY metropolitan area, and want to learn OpenOffice.org, save June 5, 2008 for a free day long training at the Google offices. We'll post more info here as it develops.

The next NOSI/NTEN webinar will be on CiviCRM, and will be conducted by the CiviCRM development team. They will give an overview of CiviCRM, examples of its use, and there will be lots of time for questions. Register on the NTEN Site. More details about the webinar are on the CiviCRM blog.

We've finalized the report on the survey we did early last month. There are some interesting results, and it is worth a read. The summary:

Our sampling wasn't sufficient to allow us to draw firm conclusions about software choices in the nonprofit sector as a whole, but our responses did come from a broad range of organizations. These groups are diverse both in size, mission and their use of free and open source software, and it is clear from their responses that FOSS is actively used in the nonprofit sector. FOSS is common on web servers, and while FOSS desktop operating systems are still uncommon, many nonprofits use free and open source applications on proprietary desktop operating systems. Many people in the sector use FOSS everyday, or at least quite frequently. Nonprofits do have a clear understanding of the strengths of FOSS, and at least some organizations have made organizational commitments to open source and open standards.

Read it here.

NOSI is very interested in the use of free and open source software in the nonprofit sector. We want to understand better how FOSS is used, what people's attitudes are towards it, and what resources are necessary for organizations to choose and use FOSS.

This is the first of an annual survey, so we can track trends of the use of FOSS in the sector, and so we can strategize to meet the needs of the sector.

It will take about 10 minutes to fill out. We'd very much appreciate your time!

Take the survey.

There has been a lot moving and shaking with NOSI lately. I figured I could give a sneak peek at what projects NOSI has in mind for in the next year.

• A "State of the Sector" survey of the use of FOSS in nonprofit organizations
• A revision of the primer
• A webinar series in collaboration with NTEN
• A new case study database, funded by Google, and in collaboration with Social Source Commons
• The start of a training program - beginning with a free training on OpenOffice.org at the Google offices in NYC, and to include both in-person and online training in such topics as FOSS desktop apps, (like OpenOffice.org), Linux systems administration, CMS systems, Moodle, and other tools.
• Consulting to help organizations choose and use FOSS
• A searchable database of vendors, consultants and organizations that support FOSS

Please make sure to subscribe to the nosi discussion list for updates.