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>>;This seems to suggest that all NGO's have the exact same needs? I think if you were to ask what my org, BSR, needs in something like CiviCRM and then turn around and ask a nonprofit affordable housing developer and then a youth advocacy organization, you'd get three very different specifications and I'm not a big believer in a monolithic app that tries to be-everything to every NGO.>>
The real question is how similar are NGO needs... 10% similar? 50% similar? 80% similar?
In Constituent Relationship Management, CivicSpace thinks NGO needs are 80% similar. In other areas, the similarity has not been evaluated.
The other observation we have made is that the "differences" are concentrated in user interface and workflow. From a software development perspective, it is possible to accommodate most NGOs differences by providing a flexible user interface and workflow layers.
In Drupal, we have a concept called a distribution. You can imagine a BSR distribution, a hosing developer distribution and a youth advocacy distribution. From the user perspective these would look completely different. From a software perspective, they might be 70-80% identical.
Something like CiviCRM is designed to accommodate the common needs of a housing developer, youth advocacy organization and BSR. The needs are different, but by using CiviCRM APIs and services and building a customer User Interface layer, you can build three different solutions for those three different organizations, all built on the same foundation.
Imagine how many different types of houses could be built from the same concrete foundations. Plus building from "pre-fab" components in general is cheaper.
>>In just a few days, hundreds of programmers solved the problem of multiple databases of missing persons during Katrina (the PeopleFinder Project). Imagine what would have been possible if the Red Cross and other relief organizations contributed their energy and expertise? >>
>>>...because it was a very specific need for like-mission organizations, no?>>;>
Yes. That is why we need folks to define specific needs and we need intermediaries involved to distribute resulting solutions broadly. 100 programmers is interesting. 100 programmers paired with 100 real world needs paired with 10 intermediaries to distribute the resulting work equals sustainable change.