[esocialaction] ChangeUp funding for East Of England FOSS in the VCS project

[Chris Bailey]

Cambridge Independent Advice Centre has been informed that we will be 
receiving some ChangeUp funding for experimenting with the use of Open 
Source software in the VCS. This is for the East of England region and 
is separate from the Cambs Circuit Rider Project that we have received 
ChangeUp funding for at sub-regional level.

There are four areas the project will be covering:

* Open Source on the desktop.

10 organisations will receive a dual boot computer with Linux and 
Windows and will try out open source programs running under both Windows 
and Linux only and will receive 20 days training and support on using 
the software. We are aiming to produce a special "Linux for the VCS" 
distribution.

* Open Source on the server.

2 organisations will be set up with a Linux server to test its potential.

* Developing open source legal case tracking software working with 3 
centres in the Region who need such software.

* Setting up an open source VOIP server and trying out its usefulness 
for 10 users in the region.

Preparation for this project has drawn quite heavily on experiences of 
using Open Source software in the NGO sector in Bulgaria, particularly 
Interspace's Open Source eRider project that has been running for more 
than two years now and Internet Rights Bulgaria's work in developing 
open source legal case tracking software for the Bulgarian NGO sector. 
Both these organisations will be assisting in this present project. We 
intend basing the "Linux for the VCS" distribution on Interspace's 
"Linux for NGOs", which is a Debian Linux distribution simplified for 
NGO use.

Each participating organisation will be required to produce a final 
evaluation of how useful they found the open source software for their 
organisation and this will be written up into an overall evaluation.

Chris Bailey
Cambs Circuit Rider Project