[kictanet] Developing software developer NGO partnerships in Kenya

[Steven Clift]

Since my speaking trip to Kenya a year ago I've been pondering how to
create a software development connections that never sleep.

In short, my U.S. based NGO uses a GPL open source online groups
platform called: http://groupserver.org

The platform is out of New Zealand and presents far better web
participation options than the Mailman platform this e-mail list runs
on for example. (But it still works well on e-mail.)

Anyway, we have a very small budget each year that we contribute
toward new features and I am considering trying to extend that budget
further with some speculative feature the development that if it
works, we'd contribute the code back the open source code base or have
installed on our customized platform

So, how do I best make the opportunity known to the right folks in
Kenya (be they technology building companies, solo programmers, tech
NGOs, extremely talented students looking for some real world
experience, etc.)?

The technology niche challenge is that we need someone who can:

1. Download and install the latest http://groupserver.org release on a
server test  they control. (Not that easy apparently based on
Mailserver requirements and misc. dependencies)

2. Program in Python and Zope. (The tool has some legacy stuff as more
code migrates from Zope into Python "eggs" (no, I really don't know
what that means)

3. Likes to experiment and can help define the software requirements
based on our rough outline of features (example experimental features
we want to explore include adding moderation to specific topics,
allowing people to set e-mail delivery by topic, geography based
private messaging circles ( http://beneighbors.org ideas), embedding
more external social media content elements based on links shared,
search alerts, better invite others tools for inclusive outreach,
creating creative ways to access old archives from old school
YahooGroups like monthly indexes to auto tag clouds to better serach,
developing interesting statistics/use information that generate
"what's hot" links, etc.!

4. Be inspired by our democracy/community building mission and
understand that our budget is extremely limited.

My thought is that the test for applying should be at least to install
a working version of GroupServer and show it to us.

So, where do I post/circulate this opportunity? (Feel free to forward
this as is.

Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
  Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
  Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072