I’m also a big fan of sibilance.

I’ll be heading back to South Carolina next week to speak at Southeast Linux Fest on Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software: Saving the World One Bit at a Time.  I (re)met a few of the SELF organizers at POSSCON back in March and couldn’t resist the chance to finally head to this grassroots, community driven event. Plus, how can you say no when the conference organizers take special requests for your adult beverage of choice so they’ll have it on hand when you arrive? (For the insatiably curious, I requested Bushmills but noted I would not turn down a bottle of Aberlour 15 year, either.)

I would love suggestions about which HFOSS projects to profile. It’s my goal to raise awareness of the humanitarian open source community in general and, more importantly, to help these projects gain new contributors. Please feel free to give me suggestions in the comments, on Twitter or via Facebook.

I’m currently planning on profiling these projects:

• HFOSS Project: an academic mentoring community dedicated to increasing participation of underrepresented groups in computer science and IT via creating “Free and Open Source Software for Society”
• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team: a team of contributors to OpenStreetMap supporting various humanitarian initiatives with a geo component
• OpenMRS: a medical record system created for HIV care in Africa and deployed worldwide to augment care for patients living in poverty
• Sahana Software Foundation: a disaster preparedness and crisis management software suite

I am debating whether Koha counts at HFOSS in the strictest sense given that it’s an integrated library system, but I love the project and consider useful access to knowledge a human right, so there you go. They’ll be in there too.

If you find yourself at SELF, please come and say “hello” and come to my talk at 5:00 PM on Friday June 10th if you’d find the material useful. I will likely have whiskey to share, too. Cheers to Southern Hospitality!

Update: My friend Amanda pointed out that Random Hacks of Kindness should be on this list. Duh and done!