Open Source Community Support Program

The Shack Group currently uses Open Source software at all levels of the corporation, from server configurations, operating systems, and programming languages, to web development, telephony solutions, and email. As Open Source software is developed for free use and distribution, we are looking for ways to give back to the community that produces it. Our Open Source Community Support program will operate at the user, development, and community levels to provide software contributions, themes, new modules, bounties, and donations to Open Source projects across multiple platforms.

User Support

One of the ways the Shack Group is working to give back to the Open Source community is to provide free technical support on help forums. User forums focusing on Open Source CMS development are notoriously overloaded with support requests that keep developers tied up for hours, and prevent users from progressing with site development. We encourage our design and web development staff to actively contribute to these forums to assist other users in practical problem solving and debugging of open issues.

Developer Support

The Shack Group sponsors the development of new modules and themes for Open Source content management systems like Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla to extend the functionality of the CMS. Often times, the development need arises out of a new web site that is being coded for one of our client accounts. After receiving agreement from the client, we release the new module to the Open Source community so that all can benefit from its functionality. We also sponsor the developers of core modules and themes with bounties and donations.

Community Donations

Open Source software gives businesses the ability to save thousands of dollars in development costs vs. proprietary software, and often includes more extensive features than those released by companies for sale. The Shack Group is actively involved in development and design using Open Source platforms, and makes regular contributions to the community associations managing them. In some instances these donations go to support core CMS development and new features, in others to support meetings, seminars, and association gatherings.

Giving back to the Open Source community in software releases, technical support, and monetary donations has become part of responsible web development operations, and is important to sustain the community’s growth into the future. Employees and clients of the Shack Group who wish to take a more proactive role in these contributions can join our Open Source Community Support committee through the Alumni Association.