That's fine, I don't expect that every monk has the time to spare to do perl coding for free. However, It's not that easy to find "volunteer organizations with data infrastructure needs." Most non-profits are so far removed from technology (besides being consumers of it) that to even talk in those terms is to lose them. However, they often have some idea of what they want to do, but absolutely no way of knowing even where to start.

A couple of examples: I know a non-profit in Boston that contacted me about building a job board for homeless African-Americans. Involved project, sounds perfect for a college student, but way too time intensive for me. I could post this on a volunteer section, and someone would get involved, or wouldn't.

Another one: an environmental organization is running a boycott campaign and would like to set up a way for visitors to sign up for action alert lists and send emails to political targets. Far easier project, maybe a couple of simple scripts. A good weekend project for a monk.

Hopefully the projects would vary enough in time and intensity that a monk could find something to fit in with the time they have available.

I know this idea is warm-and-fuzzy. I think there's a need, and I really feel that if I do volunteer work now, I want to code. It's too valuable a skill to waste.