Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector :: <br style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="4">Karen Schneider gets it right about "free" technology: that's "free, as in free kittens"</font>

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Karen Schneider gets it right about "free" technology: that's "free, as in free kittens"

by Deborah Elizabeth Finn on Mon 23 Apr 2007 07:28 PM EDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

In the realm of information and communications technology, "free" is one of those difficult words. There's very little consensus about its economic, philosophical, or legal implications. One major distinction is the one between gratis ("free beer") and libre ("free speech"). This is useful, but it isn't quite enough.

This problem is especially vexing, as nonprofit organizations experiment with web-based services (or download applications) that are apparently free. I haven't come up with a succinct metaphor to explain to them that, in the long run, they'll have to pay real money to have precisely the right tools for supporting their missions.While it's theoretically possible for a well-managed nonprofit to operate without paying a penny for hardware or software, it's extremely likely that the organization will have to pay for configuring, customizing, maintaining, upgrading, tweaking, or operating it. Either that, or they'll incur a huge opportunity cost. Adopting a free technology tool is not merely like drinking a free beer or exercising a right to free speech.

Fortunately, Karen Schneider, the fabulous Free Range Librarian, has summed it up perfectly: free as in free kittens!

Here's what she says:

...nothing is “free,” even if it didn't come with a price tag. Second Life isn't “free.” Instant messaging isn't “free.” Wordpress isn't “free.” (In fact, that sucking sound you hear may be your RSS feeds dragging down that server hosting your blogs.) Or, more correctly, all of these technologies are “free” as in “free kittens,” not free as in “free beer.” They come with maintenance and deployment issues, from opening ports on a secure network, to how much bandwidth they will use, to how much time IT personnel need to devote to deploying and maintaining the “free” software.

I love kittens. It isn't a criticism of kittens to say that their care and feeding costs money, or to point out that when you adopt a kitten you're making a significant commitment. It's also realistic to anticipate that having them around will affect others who live in or visit your household. Some people will be allergic, and others will refuse to pardon even the world's cutest kittens for leaving hairballs, dead mice, or other indiscretions around the house. You'll be in luck if everyone loves your kittens - but woe unto you if their ardent fans disapprove of the way you look after them. And you should never forget that they grow up to be cats -which is to say, wonderful, exasperating, and quirky. It's very rewarding to have them around, but you're responsible for maintaining them. Not unlike your I.T. infrastructure, right?

In the blog article that I've quoted here, Karen Schneider makes many other extremely cogent points. As I've said before, librarians are our friends, and nonprofit professionals should take advantage of every opportunity to learn from them about strategic technology planning.