[LINK] No deal with Yahoo! re Zimbra and Australian non-profits

[Darrell Burkey]

On Tue, 2008-10-28 at 10:30, Karl Auer wrote:

> We've had good results with eGroupware, which is totally open and very
> popular. Check out www.egroupware.org and click on "Applications" in the
> sidebar menu to see what's in it. It runs on any webserver that supports
> PHP and a relational database.

A bit over a year ago when I started this exercise I wasn't getting good
feedback about this project but you aren't the first one to mention it.
We may have to revisit this and I appreciate the recommendation. 

> If it has to be Zimbra though, why not sublicence? That is, you buy the
> "seats" and dole them out to smaller organisations.

They license based on 'domains'. So this is not an option.

> On the other hand, $50 per seat per annum is still dirt cheap.

You and I know that. But when a non-profit has the option of spending
$500/yr of a very tight budget to help client the disadvantaged or to
pay for software, there really is no option. The pity is that it's false
economy. They see MS offering server software and Exchange for free,
that's what their staff probably used elsewhere so that's what gets
installed and they never even hear about what FOSS can do for them. Sad
but true. I face this every day.

The advantages of the FOSS systems we install do enhance service
delivery. That's the crux of why CASE exists. Help the helpers and then
those who need the help get more help. It's simple and very effective.
Yet we see significant waste of resources (provided by your taxes mind
you) every day.

Remember, we aren't asking Yahoo! to donate this. We are offering them a
huge opportunity and the price is not the issue. The issue is they won't
provide the same pricing for smaller groups as sites with 25 users and
up. And it's these small groups where the price is an issue. 

Non-profits with funding arrangements to support 25+ staff typically
will have no issue paying the prices on offer and the 50% discount is
just fantastic. The price will be a quite an issue for small groups and
all we ask is that they get the same discount so they are not
disadvantaged in comparison. Is that not reasonable?

So perhaps the simple answer is to say goodbye to Yahoo! and hello to
egroupware? I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

Cheers.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darrell Burkey
UNIX Systems Administrator
College of Asia & the Pacific
Australian National University 
Ph: (02) 6125 4160