“Here in New York City we’ve suffered from the quadruple whammy
of economic trouble with the destruction of the financial district
after the September 11th attack on the city, the dot-com meltdown,
the stock market crash, and the assault on technical innovation by
the media industry. Many of the local Free Software community have
suffered badly, loosing their homes, their businesses, and their
self-esteem. As the President of the New York Linux Scene (NYLXS),
I’ve had to done quite a bit of hand-holding and support for
members. While we’ve tried hard to move forward with many of the
political issues which confront Free Software, the high
unemployment in our community has pushed economic development to
the top of the group’s agenda.“In July, we started to take more concrete action in trying to
do something to stimulate business for Free Software in the NYC
community. We had already established a jobs posting site which has
helped hook up employers with candidates. But this hasn’t been
enough. A committee has been formed in NYLXS to try to take on
first hand the task to driving sales for Free Software. We’ve
dubbed this effort, ‘The Free Software Chamber of Commerce’. The
result of our efforts is bearing fruit, and we hope to be an anchor
and a safe haven for both well trained consultants and businesses
looking for innovative solutions to their business problems.“NYLXS already had several support programs in place to help its
business development plans. First, the organization has Software
Institute (FSI), and general education and training program which
had already been a huge success. With over 250 individuals trained
through the FSI, many individuals were available for work with
known business ready skills in Free Software. It had also been
responsible for two large business expositions for Free Software
with Lagaurdia College, CUNY in Queens, and at the City of New York
Graduate Center in Midtown Manhattan. Both events where heavily
attended and attracted businesses from around the New York
Metropolitan area…”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.