jason0 wrote on Friday, July 29, 2011:
Hello,
My name is Jason Brooks. Sometimes I do a tiny bit of development for openemr, but more often, I am beating it with a stick as an admin.
To me, the argument about advertising appears to have a middle ground. Most of my proposed titles are meant as humor, but I don’t pretend to understand all of the issues. I apologize if I step on any toes.
First, I think it should be made clear to the visitor what the site is. This could just be the frontend for the 501©(3). It could be the nexus for all things openemr, or even a list of all known open-source medical projects.
Second, I believe it is important to make it clear how decisions get made. For instance: “though we have sponsorship, said sponsors are well aware that we will choose what is best for the community, and if they don’t like it, they can go code their own emr product.”
Third, remember the range of people viewing the site: some will be technically oriented, but others may just be providers, or managers trying to keep their costs down. So, perhaps a link to “How to use openemr” oriented to the layman, as well with technical references. “You could build your own openemr server, or have someone do it for you”. It’s what I tell people in person about openemr: “it’s so free you can install it on your own systems.” Thus, I think it’s important to give people the sense of their freedom to do with it what they wish.
As money is important to keep the lights on and disks spinning, I believe fundraising has a fundamental part of the page’s function. The donate button is good. I think advertising can have a place here. Some sites have links to a list of vendors. Perhaps ours could have a link to “vendors that play nice with open-source software”. We could even have a tab for “vendors that contribute money, and/or programming expertise”.
But the fundraising can go even further than just keeping the lights on. This fundraising could be used to advertise openemr, and oemr on other sites. There are parts of the code that need work but the code contributors haven’t gotten to, or lack the expertise. I have lots of ideas on how to improve the database, but I don’t think like a DBA. I think this is one of the reasons the board was put together: to keep openemr moving and growing, and to find resources for what needs to be done.
Most certainly we should have a credits page for any companies, groups, and individual contributors.
If we take the case that advertising may be allowed on the front page, perhaps an enclosing box with a title “paid advertisement”, or “we like these people enough that we allowed them to pay us to put their ad here”. This might avoid the impression that oemr.org specifically endorses a particular company.
If advertising on the front page is verboten, then perhaps a few additional links: One could be “how to become a sponsor, or patron”. Another could be “Recommended Vendors”, “Known Vendors”, or even just “Vendors”. Perhaps something to allow vendors to announce themselves.
The x.org foundation is an example where they have a list of Acknowlegements to various vendors for what they do. They also have a Sponsorship page.
The pfsense.org people have a list of recommended vendors, and also make no pretenses about them offering commercial support.
I hope this helps…
-jason
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