ICT Toolsets

Jonathan Peizer
Program Manager
Tel: 1-212-548-0642
E-mail: jpeizer@sorosny.org

Overview: 2005-2006

The Toolsets program area has focused in the past on funding the development of software applications for use by civil society organizations. Where the market fails to build software that meets the needs of NGOs, the Toolsets area has filled the gap by supporting nonprofit development groups building these products. While this approach has produced successful applications like Martus and the Issue Crawler, we propose to expand the purview of the toolsets area. Rather than focusing on support for discrete software projects, the portfolio will look holistically at the provisioning of toolsets; it will now include support for environments and collaborative practices that encourage the reuse and repurposing of existing software tools.

A concern common to users, software implementers, and developers dominates the discussion of software funding and usage in a nonprofit environment: lack of knowledge of what is currently available in the nonprofit software marketplace. For developers, this leads to replication of existing or similar projects, and a misdirection of resources away from more valuable projects. For implementers and users, the confusion results in difficulty locating existing applications that could be useful to them and could reasonably be integrated into their work, given constraints on hardware, connectivity, and training/support resources. This challenge sits at the crux of the Toolsets portfolio funding strategy. Our role is not only to support new development projects, but also to make it easier for developers interested in civil society organizations to join, improve, and internationalize existing projects and applications—and for those applications to be directly useful to the constituents the Soros foundations network supports.

The Toolsets project will focus in 2005–2006 on the following objectives:

application development in areas of priority to the Open Society Institute;
improved collaboration between groups of developers and between developers and users;
support for skill-building of technology professionals working on civil society–focused projects in developing countries;
exploration of alternative models for making software projects, applications, and documentation available to nonprofit/developing world developers and users (Social Source Commons, localization frameworks, “open marketplace,” bulk licensing, documentation translation, etc.).

The Information Program’s strengths lie in its broad geographical and thematic reach, and responsive networks. Focusing on the above objectives provides an opportunity to serve developers who are looking for existing code and projects to contribute to, and to end users looking for applications, training materials, and support communities.

Application Development

Support for software development has been a major part of the Toolsets portfolio’s activities from the beginning. Grant-making in this area has been more opportunistic than strategic, and has underscored the Information Program’s position as an early mover/investor in forward-thinking technology projects.

For the 2005–2006 granting year, the program will leave open the option for opportunistic funding, but will concentrate on software as a sector-specific service to be built in conjunction with experts in a given field. With that in mind, we propose to work with partners both inside and outside the Soros foundations network to identify tool needs by sector.

Initially, this would mean focused investigations into the software currently available and used by organizations working in a specific area. This approach is directly tied to the Social Source Commons project (discussed below): as these investigations are done, projects feed back into a central repository so that others can take advantage of the research. At the same time, investigations would include focused meetings to bring practitioners together with technologists experienced in civil society–facing development projects. The questions asked in this exchange—what is available, what is missing, and what is possible—will inform small, focused RFPs or tenders that the Toolsets area would release in response to articulated need. These projects would, in effect, plug the holes in existing sets of tools focused on a thematic area (internet radio stations, for instance, or mapping/GIS in a low-resource environment). We will consistently articulate a clear bias towards development projects already in progress, with an active development team and strong project management, over “created” projects that are pulled together only through our intervention.

The result of the research and meetings will be sector-specific toolkits. Some areas in which we have ongoing projects or are considering for the future include the following toolkits:

Secure NGO
Community Radio
Wireless mesh
Public library
Tobacco control advocacy
Online debate
Low-resource HIV/AIDS clinical/patient management
Legal aid center
Advocacy/campaign
Telephony
Mapping/GIS
Advocacy video editing and production

The Toolsets initiative maintains a strong preference for supporting free and open source software (FOSS) projects.

We believe that partnership with a close set of field-leading organizations is the best way to implement these types of projects; specifically, we have come to work hand-in-hand with Aspiration Tech, a technology-focused NGO that acts as an organizing partner and proxy, and will lead the international development of a resource called the Social Source Commons to facilitate this vision.

Collaboration Support: Social Source Commons

The term “Social Source Commons” (SSC) has become shorthand for a place where developers, implementers, and end users can easily find code, completed applications, and associated materials for open source software built with their community in mind. Aspiration, the Toolsets initiative, and members of the Information Program sub-board spent significant time over the course of 2004 defining the specifics of the SSC project; Aspiration has, over the same period of time, developed both a clearly articulated roadmap for the project and crucial support with external keystone partners. The December 2004 Information Program sub-board meeting approved continued support for work on the SSC project.

The original Sourceforge is a free repository for open source application code. It is used by developers, rather than end-users, and while popular, is still considered difficult to use even by developers. Further, it is an entirely self-policed space—in many ways a plus for a community resource, but also a burden for those searching for code as it has become a graveyard of dead or abandoned projects.

By contrast SSC will not take on the role of software repository. Rather, the project will host a framework that allows the creation of catalogs or maps of available materials: code, applications, localization material, documentation for both developers and end-users, and support (sustainability, management involvement, community roles). Moreover, this information will be accessible through different “lenses” or relevant filters depending on the constituency or individual using the application, be they developers, technology support providers, NGOs, or funders.

An SSC strategy has already been articulated as a distributed network that combines the best aspects of a forge, content management, and community bookmarking in the style of deli.icio.us, a service that allows public list creation of online resources. A strong commitment to the idea by an international group of tech-engaged or tech-activist NGOs is crucial for a long-lived effort. To that end, Aspiration has begun an implementation of the SSC vision through thematically focused “convergences” with key developers and NGO participants. These meetings engage crucial stakeholders in issue area identification and “sprints” aimed at quick application development or advancement to meet critical needs. In doing so, Aspiration brings meeting participants into the SSC community, and at the same time creates a stand-alone resource of use to a much larger community. The second-stage challenge, to be addressed in 2005–2006, will be the unification via the tools mentioned above of these stylistically similar but thematically disparate resources into a comprehensive resource. The value of this approach is that each new convergence creates a useful resource for a certain community, and so no effort is lost along the way in striving for a “big-picture solution.” While the end result will produce a “whole greater than the sum of its parts,” the parts will individually fill a need. We believe this approach to be the most likely to succeed, both on a resource-by-resource basis and in the final aggregate vision.

Two issues will continue to be on the table for discussion with Aspiration and other close partners in the SSC project. One is the issue of internationalization: an important element of the project is its accessibility and use beyond the English-speaking world. This is not only a language issue, but also a structural issue (accessibility in low-resource areas), a management issue (Is the team working on the project representative?), and a content issue (Are the concerns of developing world partners being met?).

Second is the issue of dissemination routes. Many ambitious projects have withered on the vine because of lack of uptake. Early in the process of designing the project, OSI and its partners began to establish relationships with tech groups who have access to broad networks of developers and users: project collaborators include Circuit Riders in the United States and international eRiders, Tactical Tech Collective through its network of technology camp attendees, and APC, an association of technology-savvy NGOs around the world. Other networks we will need to help develop further; this is tied into our support for developer communities in transitional and developing countries.

Developer Support

Support for skills-building in technology professionals is a relatively new area for the toolsets initiative. This has been addressed through a number of small projects, but has not been brought together until recently under a single heading. Our first investments in this area occurred through a project called the Developer Roadshow, which took place in South Africa in December 2004. In the coming two years, we expect to seed similar projects that raise skills and awareness among developing world programmers interested in becoming involved in civil society–focused projects.

Alternative Models

This should be seen as the “R&D” area of the Toolsets portfolio, allowing experimentation with models for future projects in the area of development and toolsets for CSOs.