The Bulgarian voluntary sector is pioneering the adoption of Linux, and is even advising some UK voluntary organisations on how to make the jump to open source

A Bulgarian voluntary organisation is using its experience in moving non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from proprietary operating systems to Linux to try and help UK voluntary organisations do the same.

Chris Bailey, an IT worker at the Cambridge Independent Advice Centre, a voluntary organisation which advises people with low incomes, is currently seeking advice from the Bulgarian NGO InterSpace. It would like to set up a similar project in the UK to help voluntary organisations shift to open-source software.

"In Bulgaria there is a fully established open-source project which has helped 30 Bulgarian NGOs, with a total of around 110 computers, to migrate from proprietary to open-source software. We are trying to start a similar project over here, using what they did as a model," said Bailey, speaking at the Open Source in the Voluntary Sector conference in London on Wednesday.

Bailey hopes that the project will be able to get funding from the UK government's ChangeUp programme, which is investing £9m to improve IT support in the voluntary sector.
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Source : ZDNET UK