Organic farming meets Free & Open Source Software? Learn organic farming during a "guerilla coding" retreat. Learn programming, networking and other home-grown computer skills while building an organic garden.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) IS the computer world's organic gardening. They would be like whole grain bread and thermal grease...perhaps not. Both tend to favor non-commercial, royalty/patent/IP safe, collaborative methods.

Combine these ideas to get geeks eating organic produce and organic farmers building wifi mesh networks.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF - http://www.wwoof.org/) is an organization that provides volunteers to work and learn on organic farms in exchange for room and board.

Programmers and other technologists who believe in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS - http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.php) often work to fund their contributions. Given the opportunity to "code for food", would many geeks go for it? Free broadband!

Host sites would provide room and board as well as equipment, materials, and transportation. Some WWOOF hosts are open to volunteers even during the winter months. Volunteers, for example, could contribute 5 6-hour days with one day a week doing "something else". This could help foster a spirit of "knowledge sharing". This could be putting up a tower for wifi antennas or deer-resistant fencing to help protect crops, teaching a class, firewood fetching, facility construction, or other community needs.

Other volunteer opportunities could exist such as camp staff, tour guiding, or custodial work at community sites.

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