Hats off to Smugmug’s Chief Geek, Don MacAskill, for his open letter, Giving back to open-source. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone viewed open source developers and software in the same light?
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One thought is whether there are any components/modules you folks have developed which would make sense for you to put into open source, which might be useful in other contexts?

Another possibility is that you could allow/encourage some of your programming staff to donate some of their time and efforts to open source projects, “on company time,” thus you’d be engaging in payback (or payforward?) to the open source community.

For example, there are some open source “e-portfolio” projects relevant to students and education, which might have similarities with your “portfolio” for photographers.