GrantsTools for Open Society
The Tools for Open Society initiative supported the provisioning of software to enhance information handling by civil society organizations; in a few cases these tools were also designed for educational institutions or public sector agencies, hence the broader rubric of “tools for open society.” Tools in this area supported data collection and analysis for monitoring or policy projects, collaboration between organizations or their constituencies, internal and external communication, and advocacy or campaigning efforts.
The term “provisioning” underscores that this project was not simply about funding the development of new software tools. Rather than aiming to support the single “killer application” for civil society groups, the Tools initiative’s first goal was to encourage innovators and creators of technology to focus on the information problems faced by civil society in low-resource regions and sectors. This approach went hand-in-hand with the Tools initiative’s second broad goal: to lower the barriers to entry for civil society organizations needing software tools by supporting research, software development community seeding, and resource creation.
Often more valuable than directly funding software development was supporting the collaboration of the technology communities and potential users around a piece of software or an issue area. In this way, for example, we brought together software developers working in isolation on a similar issue, and encouraged them to merge projects, develop shared standards (to enable data exchange between similar tools), devise partnerships, and, most importantly, work directly with the civil society organizations which were their intended user base. Often, this approach provided the opportunity to foster a community of experts through an ongoing process of innovation.
The Tools for Open Society initiative preferred to support the development of open source applications over proprietary software for two reasons: because an appropriately chosen open source license means an application could be freely distributed and modified, and because OSI's global span makes software localization a significant issue for the foundation's constituencies.
The Tools for Open Society initiative was inherited from a predecessor to the Information Program, the Soros network's Internet Program. In 2009, the initiative was folded into our other activities in the Civil Society Communications focus area, particularly Technology and Advocacy for Open Societies, and Transparency and New Technologies.
