New to the sector, our intrepid reporter gets the goods on ‘open’ and ‘open source’ technologies for nonprofit fundraising. Did you even know there was a difference?

By Melissa Busch

The assignment seemed simple enough. Find out about “open sources” and write about them for our July issue.

I knew they had something to do with technology, but that’s about it. I was concerned because when it comes to me and technology, let’s just say I have issues.

And, when it comes to nonprofit technology issues, many of you might be in the same boat, so I suppose I seemed the perfect choice to write this story. I use the Internet to shop, e-mail, do research, read the latest news and feed my insatiable appetite for celebrity gossip. That’s it. No MySpace page, no blog, and all I know about Flickr is that it’s spelled weird.