Posted May. 26/08
by Elizabeth Howell
At Carleton University, Tony Bailetti wishes to help volunteers and non-profit organizations improve their communities. As a joint professor at the Sprott School of Business and Systems and Computer Engineering, he is deploying open-source software that allows non-profit organizations and the volunteers on whom they depend to collaborate.
Tony Bailetti, joint professor at the Sprott School of Business and Systems and Computer Engineering, is deploying open-source software that encourages collaboration.
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Take voice conferencing, for example. Bailetti, his graduate students, and startup partners are deploying an Asterisk-based stack for Volunteer Ottawa to use. “All volunteer organizations have boards of directors, and most of those people are busy since they have demanding day jobs. So they will use voice conferencing systems to collaborate,” Bailetti says.
“However, proprietary voice conferencing systems use patented technology and it costs hundreds of dollars just so the volunteers can stay in touch with each other. Asterisk is open-source software, easy to install, and cheap to operate. The Asterisk system we are deploying will give Volunteer Ottawa more money to put into volunteer activities.”
Bailetti is an active volunteer himself. He takes part in social causes that affect South America, particularly initiatives that fight terrorism. In addition, he develops open-source education tools and participates in UNESCO’s forums on the use of open-source software for education and the development of open educational resources.
The Talent First Network is another of Bailetti’s causes. This province-wide project, which began in July 2006, aims to transfer and commercialize open-source technology.
Carleton students, companies, and Luc Lalande, director of the Innovation Transfer Office, participate in several Talent First projects. For example, they run OttawaTechCommunity.ca, a mini-encyclopedia of local technology companies and events.
Both the Talent First and OttawaTechCommunity.ca websites are open-source, built like a set of Wikipedia pages. It’s a growing trend among organizations, says Bailetti.
Overall, making the lives of the staff of non-profits and their hundreds of volunteers easier is what Bailetti wants to do. “One of the goals of social innovation is to use new approaches to solve old problems, such as when women fought for the vote. I wish we had open-source to help them then. I would like to think the tools we have helped develop will make life easier for the people who want to initiate and grow societal change.”
