OStatic

On a regular basis, we at OStatic round up our ongoing collections of open source resources, tutorials, reviews and project tours. These educational toolkits are a big part of the learning mission we try to preserve at the site. We regularly collect the best Firefox extensions, free online books on open source topics, free tools for developers, resources for working with and enjoying online video and audio, Linux tutorials, and much more. In this post, you'll find an updated set of more than 45 collections and resources. Hopefully, you'll find something to learn from here, and the good news is that everything found in this post is free.

Many people with technical skills, including many open source developrs, use online staffing marketplace oDesk to find work on projects. Project leaders, too, use the service as a way to find developers from all around the world with targeted types of skills. Today, oDesk is launching a program called oDesk Groups, with 11 companies as initial launch partners, including Sun Microsystems, Zend, Yahoo! and Network Solutions. Among other things, Groups are targeted to allow these large tech companies to find developers and people with other types of skills who can work on their products and services. The initial partners have substantial budgets for development, and open source-focused partners Sun Microsystems and Zend may use oDesk Groups to make work available for many open source developers and experts.

Both Joe Brockmeier at ZDNet and Matt Asay at CNet have items up today about how some of the newly unemployed folks out there can benefit from FOSS contributions. While it may seem illogical that making free contributions to free products is a good idea when the pink slip pops up, they make some good arguments for how it can improve both job and pay prospects. You'll find some good ways to improve your odds here.

Are you familiar with oDesk? We've covered the company several times. It's an online staffing marketplace and management platform that hooks up prospective remote workers from all around the world with employers, and vice-versa. Moreover, it guarantees payments to service providers for hourly work, and guarantees the work to buyers. Web developers, web designers, and people with open source skills of all stripes can hire or be hired on oDesk, and the company is seeing more interest in its services as the economy worsens. Check out the interview with oDesk CEO Gary Swart on WebWorkerDaily, and find out how you can market your open source skills on oDesk.

Whether you're fresh out of college and looking for work in the world of open source, looking to work from home, just want to peruse available jobs emphasizing open source, or want to build your open source persona online, there are many good online resources. Some of these come from OStatic and our sister blogs, and some are found out on the Net at large. Here, we provide more than 10 non-obvious examples.

As many researchers and writers have been reporting lately, the typical skills that college graduates in computer science have are so common now that differentiation from the typical skill set may make a lot of sense. Their skills are so easily outsourced that theyﾒre heading for near-term obsolescence, writes James Maguire. The good news is that open source skills can be huge differentiators, and graduates may be very well served by pursuing jobs directly inside the open source community. So how can graduates develop and showcase open source skills that could make a difference for them? Here are eight ways.

oDesk, a marketplace and management platform that allows technically skilled workers to meet each other and employers, has announced that it has secured $15 million in Series C financing. That's in addition to significant previous funding that the company received.ﾠ DAG Ventures led the round.ﾠ Existing investors Benchmark Capital, Globespan Capital Partners and Sigma Partners also participated. The capital is to be used for expansion, according to the company.

OStatic is sending out a call-to-arms for open source developers. Our goal is to encourage developers to sign up here and showcase open source expertise--with benefits for both them and the open source movement. By signing up at OStatic, filling out a profile for yourself (including your skills), providing reviews for projects, adding resources and information to OStatic's wiki-style project pages, and listing alternatives to projects, you can build your reputation. But don't worry, we will never share your e-mail address or personal information. In keeping with this effort, OStatic is working with oDesk.