I’m often asked, “How can you make any money with Open Source software?” While I’ll attempt to answer this question in this post, the real topic to be discussed here is why developers like and want to freely give their code away; why open source matters, why it works. These two questions, how one can make money with free software and why a developer would want to give code away, are very well connected.

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I heard at work this week that I’ve been selected to attend the Tools for Grassroots Organizers Conference to be held at the end of April at the Stanford Sierra Conference Center. I’m excited to attend but hope some day to be selected to present as well. I think I have a lot to offer NGOs with regards to how to setup a professional web presence without a huge price tag

In the coming weeks, I plan on writing a blog outlining the web tools I would recommend for any Tools conference participant.

I have had a few people ask me recently, “Why is your blog the home page?” Well, several reasons really. First of all, it was too easy to not write something before I put the blog on my home page. Now, every time I go to the site, I am reminded that I have some writing to think about and a contribution to create.

Writing this blog is both a means of recording some work ideas and of showing the personality of The Design Mission. Work is much more than a job to me. Creating websites that make a difference in the world is the real goal here, and by highlighting issues important to me, I get that message across in other ways.

Finally, I have really come to understand that my work speaks for itself. I have more jobs than I can handle, and am happy with the clients I have kept along the way. Blogging allows for me to express opinions, present new ideas, and get things clearly defined for myself, simply by putting them in writing.

The blog has become the main focus of the website, it needs to be the home page.

Almost a year ago, the minister at the Unitarian Universalist church we attend had a sermon that truly hit home with me. It was about being inconvenienced. We tend to want things now, quicker, faster and with less work on our part. Being inconvenienced is simply not tolerated these days. However, we take much for granted with this attitude. What improvements to my life might a bit of inconvenience do for me? I began to question some of the things I was doing simply to make my life ‘easier’.

One thing was driving the 2.3 miles to the Ventura Harbor to go paddling three days a week. I would do this, then drive home, shower and ride my bike to work like I did the other days of the week. This was simply a matter of convenience on my part. However, it burned more fuel than I needed and seemed wasteful. Why not just ride my bike the added distance and paddle in the morning and then ride to work and shower there? I decided to give it three months and see what I’d learn from the experience.

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I’ve found a few sites I like a great deal for use with my iPhone, or in conjunction with other Mac programs and my iPhone. I have to say the switch to using this device was nearly painless. My Palm Pilot took a lot longer to configure, and the search for software didn’t yield as good of a crop as what I’m finding already for the iPhone. I’m hopeful that future products will be even more powerful.

Here are some of the sites and tools I’ve found to be quite powerful, and how I’m using them.

Remember the Milk - this web based application has an iPhone component that you can subscribe to for $25 a year. (There’s a trial period for using the iPhone component, too.) The web service itself is free although donations are encouraged. I found it so useful that I got the “Pro” version right away.

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