Who we serve
We provide service to:
- People looking for social services
- Non profit and community groups
- People who need skills
Publicity: non profit and community groups
Our Open Source software drives two websites: MVHub and the North Shore Portal.
Every month, we provide more than 1,000 referrals to services like homeless shelters, pregnancy testing and food pantries. Our websites provide publicity for more than 300 agencies and 700 programs.
Job skills: Accidental job training
Skilled, experienced software developers aren't always willing to work for little or no money. Therefore, we provide practical experience in software development to people with various unhappy labels such as "unemployed", "at risk", "entry level", "poor" and "old".
Our goal is not to provide training but to get useful work done. Paradoxically our alumni claim that because we care more for the work than training they are better prepared for market rate jobs.
Who we used to serve
From 1999 to 2008, our primary goal was to provide reliable free email and web hosting to 40 non-profit and community groups, like homeless shelters, girls clubs and immigrant rights groups.
In 1999, this was an important need. Right now, groups like Google, Dreamhost , Grassroots.org and riseup.net do a better job. Our goals have changed.
Donating
| To give or pledge cash |
click here |
Individual donations go for things like:
- $8/hr wages to 15-19 year old youth with labels and under used brains
- Buying lunch for volunteers
- Equipment
Salaries, (to the extent we have them) are covered by larger grants (to the extent we win them)
For full details on spending see our checkbook register (.xls)
CSL Biggest Supporters
Our biggest supporters are UMass Lowell and the Transmission Project We would not exist without them. However, neither group is responsible for our mistakes.
Community Software Lab Mission
We use open source software and the web to connect people to the social services they need.
Vision
We work toward a post scarcity society by making the values of the open source movement, namely transparency, meritocracy, and generosity, the values of the entire culture.
Philosophy
Information and software are wealth. Creating and using free software is a way to create wealth. Learning and teaching are best achieved by doing work that helps others.
Current Methods:
We provide no-cost web directories of social services using our free software.
CSL short term goals
- To make MVHub and NorthShorePort more useful than Google in their small social service niche.
- To make the software and data that run these sites available to anyone who wants to attempt to provide better service.
See our 1 page MVHub Factsheet (pdf)
Very short term, over the next year or so, we plan to do better than Google (in our little niche) by making the info in our databases more easily indexed by Google.
Helping as a volunteer
Our focus is not skills building or job development. Our focus is getting useful work done without much wealth. To volunteer with us, you need some skills. We're not as picky as groups hiring $60,000 per year software developers, but to volunteer with us you need to start with some small skills. Check out our (hopefully quick and easy) volunteeer test
More information
To keep in touch with our activities, you can join the CSL page on facebook or sign up for our cadre-politics mailing list:
At the moment the cadre-politics list traffic is mostly brief weekly/monthly bits of news about our work. For more information see the cadre-politcs archives
Anyone on the list can post to provide feedback. There are about 70 people on the list, Most members are CSL alumni or active volunteers.
If you subscribe please limit your posts to our work.