Until this week's lesson, I was completely unaware that open source software existed outside of Google Docs. Open source software is cool becuase anyone can access it for for FREE. Yep, it's free. This is somewhat frustrating for me becuase I purchased Microsoft Office at the beginning of this semester, and even with my student doscount it cost $120. Couldn't we have had this lesson first? It also allows a kind of collaborative effort by users in adjusting the software to improve it.
I have considered working in the non-profit sector of Public Relations. If I do, I would definitely suggest using open source software because non-profits usually operate on a tight budget. It would be an easy and effective way to cut back on costs - in any business for that matter. Open source software offers free use of a lot of software services that I use like publishing documents, spreadsheets, and slide shows.
My outside source this week is this website which is about the Open Source Initiative (OSI.) The OSI mission is to educate people about open source and to bring together people in the open source community. They try to maintain the transparency of open source software, and they act as a standards body in an effort to sustain trust in the open source community. OSI states on their website that "The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in."
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