Today my time at OpenAdvantage my finishes. I have been here for nearly two years, and it has been an absolute blast. It has been a privilege to be a part of a project that has really helped to make Open Source flourish in the West Midlands. The aim of this article is to share some of the things that have happened over the last few years and give an insight into OpenAdvantage and what we do.

OpenAdvantage is a fairly small project, staffed with a director (Scott Thompson), assistant director (Paul Cooper), two Open Source consultants (Elliot Smith and I), system administrator (Anthony Ramm), design and interaction specialist (Michael Evans), marketing manager (Julia Hickey), office manager (Michelle Service) and administration assistant (Claire Hickey). This small team work closely together to encourage the adoption, use and development of Open Source throughout the West Midlands, in a range of different areas.

Working at OpenAdvantage is no simple task, and it requires a demanding technical competence in so many different areas. Here we don't work in single, specific areas, but we learn, refine and understand technologies that our clients want, and these are incredible diverse. As an example, in the last few years, some of the subjects I have worked on have included voice over IP, document management, content management, web development, licensing, CRM, ERP, 3D graphics, vector graphics, community building, system administration, Linux, Samba, integration, podcasting, wikis, collaborative writing, desktop development, .NET, Python, backup strategy, groupware, LAMP, clustering, intellectual property, development environments, source control, unit testing, Eclipse, and much much more.

In addition to the diversity of subjects, we have a had an incredibly diverse range of clients. This has included small businesses, contractors, public sector organisations, schools, community groups, charities, enterprises, user groups and more. Each of these organisations has passed through the doors on one of the many training courses, seminars or one-to-one meetings that we have provided. Although there have been hundreds of organisations through our doors, a few key cases stand out for me as examples of where Open Source really hits its target.

Probably the case that I most proud of is the National Institute of Mental Health in England (NIMHE). The full details of this case can be found in this case study, so I won't spoil it too much. What I find exciting about this case study is that Open Source made things possible for NIMHE that were simply impossible with alternatives. We often hear about the cost benefits of Open Source, but the other benefits such as access to code, functionality, flexibility and support each helped NIMHE into an IT solution that really works for them. Jenny Dalloway, Locality Directory for CSIP West Midlands considered OpenAdvantage key in helping them to move forward, "OpenAdvantage were instrumental in NIMHE considering their solution" she says.

One of the benefits of working with such a diverse range of organisations is seeing how Open Source is used in different ways and how it affects people. We have worked on projects to create a consortium of CAD software developers making Open Source software, helped companies to understand the issues involved in Open Sourcing their applications, helped to train contractors in Open Source technology that many have gone on to form successful businesses from, helped set up local community projects to get kids of the street and using computers with Open Source, consulted with businesses using Open Source voice over IP to have world-class telephony for a fraction of the cost and much more. In many of these cases, Open Source applications with a winning formula have been a key recipe in helping businesses to move forward. One such example is Joomla!, the incredibly popular Content Management System (CMS). We have been providing courses on Joomla! for quite some time, and Michael and Anthony are inundated with interest in this popular web based CMS. Likewise, the huge success of Linux has kept our Linux System Administration course filled, and its instructor Paul Cooper busy.

Open Source in the West Midlands is growing at a sheer rate of knots. Not only are businesses, education, charities and individuals around the region learning about Open Source, but the ever important community is developing apace too. Five years ago I set up Wolverhampton Linux User Group to help bring Linux and Open Source users in Wolverhampton together, and there also many additional Linux User Groups in the region including South Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Malvern, Nuneaton, Rugby, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. In addition to this there are other Open Source groups such as the Birmingham Perl Mongers (Perl), Brum2600 (computer security) and the Multipack groups (web development).

Two other groups have been started by OpenAdvantage people. The first is PHP West Midlands (PHPWM) which I set up in May 2004 and has now grown to over 120 members. This group was inspired by the incredibly popular PHP and MySQL FastTrack courses given at OpenAdvantage and a desire to help bring together a community of PHP users. What started out as an experiment proved to be a success, and the group is a thriving place for discussion about PHP, MySQL, web development and other areas, and the group regularly has face-to-face meeting with talks and demos. The second group is RailsWM, a group set up by Elliot Smith, an OpenAdvantage consultant and Ruby on rails enthusiast. His Rails courses and seminars have also been hugely popular and Elliot decided to help develop a Rails community in the West Midlands.

When I first heard of OpenAdvantage, I was a somewhat cynical journalist who interviewed Paul and Scott to find out what the project was intending to achieve. After submitting a barrage of Paxman-esque questions, the answers that came back were clear in the honest and intelligent direction of the project. When I was offered the job at OpenAdvantage a few months later, I was intrigued to see if my positive impression of OpenAdvantage would swing one way or the other. Since those early days I have never ceased to be amazed with the enthusiasm and energy behind OpenAdvantage and the individuals involved. What has been a very focussed local project helping re-develop the West Midlands has turned into a project with a global reputation. Like my colleagues, I have spoken at Open Source conferences around the world, and in each country OpenAdvantage has been a familiar name. The strong reputation of the project has evidently been secured.

As I move on to pastures new working for Canonical as the Ubuntu Community Manager I don't just have fond memories of OpenAdvantage, but I am proud of what the project has achieved and what it continues to achieve. I wish each of my colleagues all the best for what is sure to be an exciting future.

Jono Bacon