There are folks from NOSI in the OpenACS community... me for one.
Right now, NOSI is in the eternal debate of "What toolkit is idiot proof and will work immediately for a bunch of folks that just taught themselves how to program TODAY" and "How can we support the creation of a toolkit that is idiot proof and will work immediately for a bunch of folks that just taught themselves how to program IN THE FUTURE".
Don-
The Ebase project (the folks with the kind OpenACS comments) is very real and is probably the single largest domestic open source effort in the *entire* nonprofit sector (even considering things like the MIT project to open up their classes). IMHO, getting them to adopt OpenACS would be even more signifcant than ACES to the community (only because ebase agressively distributes their very good application).
Finally, the biggest message to bring from the NOSI discussion is that _no one_ on the user/implementor side of things gives a hoot about technical and functional superiority. All they care about is that when they enter a URL, the application is there, it works, and it effectively meets their precise needs.
OpenACS has already solved many of the barriers to "plug-and-play" functionality-- the APM archiecture, the concept of creating vertical plug-and-play portals, for instance.
It still has a ways to go.
Having said that, I am a shameless OpenACS proponent, because you all have taken it 60 percent of the way to where nonprofits need to go. Through work with Musea and others in the community, I hope to play a role in moving the platform the other 40 percent of the way.
Keep up the great work everyone... the world is watching and a complete OpenACS 4.x port will open up tremendous opportunities!
