Equitas IT Solutions

Why VCS organisations should use free software

Equitas IT Solutions has a great deal of experience and interest in the UK Voluntary/Community Sector (VCS)¹. We also use and advocate free and open source software and we have a desire to see it used more often in VCS and non-governmental (NG) organisations. We believe that these two groups should be some of the leading and major non-personal users of free software and here’s why.

It’s not about cost

Firstly let's get the most common argument for free software out of the way: cost. Software cost alone should not be the reason for choosing free software. Free software can and does cost money, and if the argument is purely financial the big vendors will always undercut—even matching the zero-cost tag to get the deal (knowing they’ll get it all back later). Larger VCS and NG organisations will strike multi-licence agreements, smaller ones can often get a similar deal by joining an umbrella group. At the time of writing charities in the UK can get a full copy of MS Office Professional with an 80% discount. Cost of software is not usually an issue but it wasn’t always like that.

Not too many years ago, software solutions in the VCS (at least in the UK) were likely to be a bad mix of freeware, unlicenced shareware or (if you were lucky) donated software. There was also a lot of very old software in use because it came with donated kit. Of course much of that software should have been removed before donation because of the licence it was purchased under.

That’s a fairly bleak picture and of course you will find people who will say it wasn’t like that — but in general it was and in some cases still is. Factor in also the dreaded (usually MS Access) database written by a "friend-of-a-friend" who you’ve lost touch with, and you have a bad situation.

In the last few years there has been a move by charities towards “professionalism” in the way they deliver their services, handle their funds and generally operate. This is not a bad thing but in software terms it has often meant “do what the corporates do”, which can result in software purchases without significant prior consideration. The twin adages of “nobody got sacked for buying Microsoft” and “it’s what everyone else uses” can be seen to underpin some of the decisions. On the plus side it also means a desire to “do things properly” — no more freeware or friend-of-a-friend databases without support considerations. Charities and NGOs have for some time moved away from the take-anything-because-it’s-cheap philosophy. Okay, again it’s still in practice in some corners but generally the impression I get is that it has changed.

So, why free software?

How does free software address this call for professionalism? It's known that free software can be as “professional” (if not more so) than some proprietary counterparts. Also, good free software is often based upon “doing it right” as well. A good example of this is the way styles are central to the use of OpenOffice.org. It’s a departure from the way MS Office does it; it seems more cumbersome at first, but as you get used to it you realise why they help so much — particularly on longer documents. The security, stability and other oft-trumpeted advantages of free software stem, in part, from decisions to “do things properly”.

This philosophy also results in the main reason I feel VCS and NG organisations should be using free software. Use of open standards. Choice of software is an investment, which software you use can dictate the direction of your organisation as much as anything else. If you are using software that locks you into one format or vendor, then you are at the mercy of that vendor or whomever holds the copyright on that format. When they decide you must upgrade, you will fall into line or be left behind (which will only work for so long). I suspect this is hardly news to most people reading this.

Free software is more likely to use open standard formats: formats not owned by one company, and with a much longer and more stable shelf-life. When a charity or NGO you donate to invests in software, wouldn’t you rather the money was not spent “keeping up with the Gates’” but delivering the services that are needed? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying they should use free software because of the price-tag. I'm saying that donors often expect charities and their counterparts to be responsible for the money they receive. Donors expect charities to be more ecologically sound, fairer to employees, more open and honest, in a word ethical. People, and donors, expect this much more of charities than of businesses.

Donations with strings attached

There is an ethical argument for free software, as much as there is one for Fairtrade goods². Like Equitas IT Solutions, free software is about fairness: fairness to the developers, fairness to the vendors, fairness to end-users. Sadly this point is not often mentioned to potential VCS/NGO users, but it should be and it's one of our founding principles.

When a trust or large funder donates to a charity, the donation usually comes with strings attached. The receiving organisation must produce report after report saying how the money was used. Some trusts will not donate to IT projects because they see little real return for their donation. Use of free software can mean that donation is better spent, and that the charity is unlikely to come back for more funds when the next version is out. It means the charity is able to produce services that are ground-breaking and unique because the software they use will adapt to their needs and not the other way around, and it doesn’t force them to dance at the behest of a profit-driven business. How do I know this? Because I've been helping charities to grow and benefit from the use of free software for years.

• I would like to see funders investing in IT projects in the VCS, but they will be more reluctant if they feel their money is just going on licences.
• I would like to see charities using free software more, so it can help them to lead and not follow the business crowd again, but they won’t if they don’t realise its potential.
• I would like to see charities and NGOs investing in people, not software licences, because people can have a much greater impact.
• I would like to see the free software community and the VC/NGO sectors engage and work together more and more. It's one of the reasons Equitas IT Solutions exists.

Attribution

This article is (c) 2008 Ryan Cartwright/Equitas IT Solutions and is released under the following license: "Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved and appropriate attribution information (author, original site, original URL) is included". It is based upon one written by Ryan Cartwright (of Equitas IT Solutions) that appeared in Free Software Magazine.

• Find out more about how Equitas IT Solutions deploys free and open source software for itself and its clients.

Footnotes