Summer Source Camp, Vis, Croatia, September 2003

The ferry ride in a stormy sea ends at what looks like a small Mediterranean port, but it is too dark and windy to see much. A batch of SummerSource Camp participants stumble off the boat. We take a small van up a hillside to a former camp of the then-Yugoslav army. Accommodations are simple, but there are bright lights, a small outdoor bar with a palm frond roof, and a magical bazaar crafted of swaths of cloth draped over a small plaza covered with pine-needles, pillows and blankets. Jetlagged and tired, we tumble into our cots in large, airy dorm rooms named after programming languages. The small group of women resides in "Ruby." We are all here for SummerSource Camp 03, a "software camp for NGOs" (non-governmental organizations) on the small island of Vis off the coast of Croatia. Organized by TacticalTech of Amsterdam and MAMA Multimedia Institute of Zagreb, SummerSource brought together an eclectic group of 85 e-riders, NGO activists, Open Source (OSS) programmers, and Open Source activists from 35 predominantly transition countries for eight days of hands-on learning and skill exchange. The Camp focused on increasing practical knowledge of open source software and implementation, as well as building personal relationships between developers and NGO “implementers” in order to foster the greater relevance of OSS solutions.

Why Open Source Open Source Software (OSS) or 'Free Software' as it is often referred to, can be shared, distributed and customized because its source code is freely available. Unlike proprietary software, open source programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software as far and as often they like – one main reason why the software development process including bugfixing happens so quickly. Any software with these characteristics and the relative potentials contributes to the ICT knowledge transfer and makes software piracy practices become completely obsolete. The vibrant, mostly volunteer OSS developer community which operates with the users in a spirit of collaboration and openness, by its nature reflects many values of civil society NGOs.

Why SummerSource 03? In this context, SummerSource 03 was intentionally structured as a hands-on camp to tackle the barriers that prevent many NGOs from adopting Free and Open Source solutions. These include the lack of training and information about practical applications of F/OSS software for NGOs, as well as limited insights of open source developers into the day-to-day concerns and workings of NGOs—insights needed to produce truly useful solutions for this sector.

A map of web links, generated by Richard Rogers of govcom.org from a list of URLs of participanting organizations revealed empirically one of the rationales for SummerSource: to better connect the disparate communities of Free and Open Source developers and NGOs and to begin building a stronger sense of community between the two.

The sessions, workshops, and peer trainings were thus designed to maximize interactions between F/OSS developers and NGO staff responsible for implementing Open Source solutions, and to build skills in both communities. While there were formal facilitators for each session, they were not billed as the ‘experts,’ but simply as additional resources to the expertise that everyone brought to the camp. Allen Gunn of Tactical Tech, facilitator of the event, noted “we want people to know they do not need a so-called expert to show up for capacity to develop. Everyone has expert input to offer. Capacity is built when there is a community of empowered people, regardless of their particular niche of expertise.”

Throughout the camp, there was an emphasis on small group interactions and peer trainings that blossomed in impromptu gatherings around computers and lunch tables. My most enduring images of the week on Vis are of small groups of people from the most disparate regions of the world huddled together over a computer, with screwdriver or keyboard in hand, concentrated and engaged in understanding yet another facet of a wireless card or Open Sourcecontent management system.

The Workshops More formally, there were sessions for NGO staff on how to choose an operating system, assessing ICT needs, installing Linux on the desktop, configuring a server, as well as trainings on specific applications, such as content management systems, web apps, and graphic design programs. For developers, there were workshops on how to work effectively with NGOs, development processes, increasing collaboration among developers, and funding models for Free and Open Source application development.

Security issues were heavily emphasized, with several sessions on assessing and ensuring data security for NGOs operating in sensitive areas such as human rights, and in countries with repressive governments. The security thread culminated in a PGP key signing session complete with readings of dozens of key numbers and name and passport verifications. While amusing in its ritual, the party also illustrated the necessity for stringent security controls that many NGOs often take too lightly at the peril of their work.

During the week, developers had a chance to share their latest skills and applications with one another in the army “biblioteca” that had become “mainframe,” the hub of the wireless network buzzing with energy and creativity. The great level of investment and personal commitments to Free and Open Source applications for NGOs of the developers was plainly visible there. The organizers had succeeded in convening a healthy mix of freelance, community F/OSS developers, and those employed by NGOs such as Greenpeace and Benetech, that made for fruitful interactions, especially in the small hours of the night surrounded by humming computers, blinking screens, clicking keyboards, and a few errant moths.

Camp Vis Accommodations in the barracks of the old Yugoslav army camp were sparse but functional. Whilst there were some grumblings and jokes about the occasional lack of hot water, and mysterious soy patties at dinner, the lack of luxury and the communal activities such as dishwashing served to draw participants out of their comfort zone and helped create personal bonds likely to last beyond the Camp and across geographic distances.

While living quarters were simple, the technology set up to accommodate the participants was not. The Camp was brimming with laptops, wireless access points, and two sophisticated computer labs for workshops, equipped with dozens of workstations, servers, projectors, routers, and other hardware.

MAMA and TacticalTech had transformed one of the open spaces into a bazaar sought to evoke the energy and interplay of a busy marketplace. Organizers had laid out rugs, brewed mint tea, and created a space where camp participants could exchange open source ideas, projects and visions, trading in currencies of creativity and learning. Films and other art jams were shown nightly while during the day it became an oasis for small groups to meet and interact in an open-air setting.

The Schedule and Events Each morning started with a meeting in the amphitheatre with quick go-arounds, announcements, reminders to keep the interactions jargon- and acronym-free, and a communal spirit in the sun that set the tone for each day. The agenda was intelligently designed with lots of free time in the afternoons to allow for group outings and interest-group meetings. In general, facilitators were deft, agile, and adept in picking up and responding to participant needs by adding ad-hoc sessions, additional facilitators to sessions, and intervening when there were any communication or language difficulties.

As SummerSource coincided with the World Trade Organization talks in Cancun,Mexico, organizers set up an impromptu audio hook-up to activists there, using open source software. There were several intense and powerful streaming audio conversations between activists in Vis, Croatia and Cancun, halfway across the world and with very iffy ISDN lines. These exemplified not only the real-life capabilities of open source software for social action in a less than ideal setting, but also provided an inspiring perspective of the power and possibility of community building and connections As Kwindla Hultman from AllAfrica wrote later, “It’s powerful to hear voices from halfway around the world. And even more powerful to be able to talk (dance, cheer, laugh) together.”

Takeaways SummerSource succeed in keeping the ideological debates that rage within the open source community at bay by focusing heavily on practical applicability and training. During the introductory session on the first day, a spectrogram exercise drew out some of the ideological differences between the present participants- for instance, a (mainly North American) pragmatism around open source (more stable, more cost effective, more customizable) and a European view focused on copyleft and intellectual property in capitalist economies. Even though the Camp was deliberately focused on the process of open source deployment that stressed skill building, needs assessments, appropriateness, ideological differences crept up occasionally and made for some lively, if at times tense, dinner conversations.

Perhaps not surprisingly, there were notably few women at CampVis, comprising only about 10% of participants. Organizers had tried to attract more women by targeting specific F/OSS user groups, but there was little uptake. Stephanie Hankey, Tactical Tech’s Senior Partner was particularly disappointed at the low number of female participants and facilitators: “Bringing all those very special people together of course has been a very good start. Working for a major female participation on both the developer and implementer's side, however, will certainly be one of our key objectives for similar events to come”.

Interestingly, one of the main audiences for SummerSource 03 had been developers of F/OSS solutions but as participants arrived and introduced themselves, it became apparent that many participants describing themselves as “developers” were web rather than software developers, pointing to a clearer definition of the “developer” and “implementer” descriptors.

Hands-on session by NGO implementers of F/OSS were mostly well done, but it was apparent that this was a new area of teaching for many of the facilitators. Likewise, developers stretched themselves at facilitating some of the larger workshops while they excelled at the more technical, one-on-one peer-learning interactions. Since this was the first Camp of its kind, there were other lessons learned: there is a need for the development of a more diverse and less Anglo-focused facilitator “farm team” that participates in pre-Camp trainings, there need to be more manuals and written materials, sessions needed sometimes clearer content outlines and offered several times throughout the Camp, and more frequent break-outs into small groups sorted by different skill levels would have been beneficial to increase learning.

Overall however, participants clearly left with new skills, a new sense of community and understanding of each other, lasting friendships, and last but not least, an open source applications sampler on a CD, a veritable ‘NGO in a box.’ While there were already some powerful instances of open source deployment that surfaced link to case studies in West Africa, Nepal (http://www.ganeshas-project.org), Romania, Poland, and the Netherlands, among other places, there have already been reports on the SummerSource listserv of small NGOs trying out the NGO-in-a-box applications to start their organizations on the path to Free and Open Source software.

What’s Next? Since SummerSource, there has been active traffic on the listserv, with posts sharing events and resources, bilateral communications with new acquaintances, and a call to revive the camp wiki with session notes and resource lists. Tachtical Tech, meanwhile, is planning follow up initiatives with various partners from the camp such as case studies, a how-to-guide for getting started with Linux and NGOs and possibly an African Summer Source event next year.

For me, the SummerSource 03 experience exemplified in spirit and practice the essence of what open source is all about – an agile, lively, vibrant community of user-developers and developer-users. A post from another participant on the listserv sums it up: “I told you that it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning of a great wonderful journey of a community of open-minded and free people.” Back to participant reviews