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05.13.10 Take The (Open) Plunge Already!  By Michael MarrAbout ten years ago or so, you may have ran across this nice little swimming hole called open source software (OSS). The pool was small and you didn't see too many of your professional IT buddies swimming in there. You decided to pass It up. However, times have changed, and you can no longer ignore the Olympic sized swimming pool in the room. So why haven't you taken the plunge? Come on in, the water is fine! It still amazes me to this day that companies aren't taking advantage of some of the amazing open source packages out there. The overwhelming advantage with OSS is with employee transition/turnover. When someone moves up (or out), you have to find a replacement that can use whatever system is currently in place. When you're stuck utilizing an in-house tool, you are missing out on easing this transition. This applies not only to programmers, who would be relatively easy to find with experience on a given oss project versus your closed in-house software, but also to the end-users of a system. Not all end-users are going to know that they are using Drupalor KnowledgeTree, but if they do, it makes your employee search that much easier. Here are two areas you should seriously consider implementing OSS projects: • Intranet. What does your Intranet do? If you don't have one, why not? Intranets are a great way to disseminate company information such as Internet usage policies, code of conduct, and other human resource documents, or special announcements such as a new vacation policy or how Sally struck you out four times in the company softball game last week. With a solid content management system (CMS) like Drupal or Joomla, you can easily find modules to meet any specific needs, and assign areas and appropriate access to Human Resources, Accounting, Management, Custodial Engineering, or anyone else that needs/wants an area to post useful information. • Blog. The power of social media should not be ignored by the IT professional. Ultimately, the decision on whether or not to use blogs is not decided by the IT professional. But, its important to be know about this because well, everyone else is doing it. I know, I know, Mom always said "Would you jump off a cliff if everyone else is doing it?" Well, in this case, yes. Wordpressmakes it so insanely easy to get a blog up and and running, not to mention skinning the design to match whatever web presence you already have, that it is a little silly not to recommend blogging to management. When (not if) they decide to, you can quickly have them up and blogging. Don't you want to go get your feet wet? Go ahead, dip those toes in the water. However, be warned: I might just come up behind you and push you in! About the Author: Michael Marr is a IT staff Writer for WebProNews. |
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