collaboration with other non-profits?

As the OSAF seems to be carving out a new niche for iteslf as a non-profit 
software development firm, I was wondering if you have thought about 
collaborating with other non-profits entities.

I am tech coordinator (and Zope developer) that is working on a new design 
research project (with a laundry list of Universities and Foundations) to do 
design research on improving the 'information infrastructure' of schools.  I 
think Chandler and its architecture might make a great foundation for some of 
our work with teachers.  

We once Chandler releases start appearing, of course we would be able to start 
testing and adapting it to our needs.  However, I don't think I can convince 
"the suits," i.e., the professors running the research project, that it is 
safe to base to base our work on an open source project that we don't have 
any sort of formal relationship with.  

The general outlines of a relationship might look like this:

 * OSAF sets aside some time to meet with our developers and get them started 
on Chandler's architecture;

* We provide OSAF with a few well supported and documented test sites (our 
participating schools);

* Our developers & project managers get the reassurance of feeling like there 
is someone standing behind the architecture;

* OSAF eventually get a formal design research report on the efficacy of their 
software in improving the culture of teaching and learning in inner city 
schools in Providence and Chicago.

Is this something OSAF might be interested in exploring?

--Tom Hoffman
http://tuttlesvc.org
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