Bryant Group

At OSCON: Why the Government is Turning to Open Source

I ‘m excited about speaking at O’Reilly’s OSCON next week, and I’ll be joined by fantastic panelists. My session is 4:30pm Wednesday, July 22.

Bureaucrats, Technocrats and Policy Cats: How the Government is turning to Open Source, and Why.

Deborah Bryant (OSU Open Source Lab), Bjorn Freeman-Benson (DemocracyLab), Greg Lund-Chaix (Oregon State University Open Source Lab), Clay Johnson (Sunlight Labs), Aleksandar Totic (Open Source Digital Voting Foundation)

Open source shares critical values with government and public education that make them function in the ideal; meritocracy of ideas, transparency, collaboration. But where is the sweet spot in the confluence of these social, technical, and public policy ideals? And where is the opportunity for the citizen developer to get involved? Read more.

Webcast | e-Sri Lanka: Transforming Government and Society with ICT

My colleagues at the Global IT Group in DC and the e-Development Thematic Group in Russia at the World Bank are producing another outstanding web cast and I wanted to pass along the news. These are very informative and professionally produced global discussions. Sri Lanka’s expereince is of particular interest to me as they worked to make extensive use of open source software and have one of the highest per-captial ratios of software developers contributing to global open source projects. Drop in on them and see:

e-Sri Lanka: Transforming Government and Society with ICT

When: May 28, 2009, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET (GMT – 4 hours)

Live webcast: http://vcg01.worldbank.org/eDev

World Bank invites you to this seminar to discuss lessons learned from
implementing an integrated e-government and e-development program in Sri
Lanka and setting up a dedicated government agency to support this agenda.
The E-Sri Lanka initiative, which became effective in January 2005 is one
of the pioneering ICT for Development projects supported by the World
Bank. This ambitious e-development project aims to bring connectivity to
rural populations, improve the way government operates and raise awareness
of the benefits of ICT for remote rural populations as well as support the
development of a vibrant private ICT sector. The leadership team from Sri
Lanka’s ICT Agency will present (i) the original E-Sri Lanka vision and
(ii) emerging lessons and key results after the first four years of
implementation experience. To learn more about e-Sri Lanka program visit:
http://www.icta.lk

Event details: http://go.worldbank.org/8RRMW83HB0

You can ask questions and post comments via Twitter (#eSL09) which will be
shared live with the speakers and audience in Washington

Government Open Source Conference DC Call for Speakers is open

The June 23, 2009 Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) DC Call for Speakers is now open!

The conference will include one day of intense GOSCON program content, exciting keynotes, lightening-round sessions, rich opportunities to network with peers. Topics include:

Open Source in the Enterprise
Sustainability
Policy
Open Collaboration & Federal Grants
Open Health IT- Vertical Showcase on Public Health
Effective E-Government – Gov 2.0

Speaker Guideline and online proposal forms are availlable through the conference Call for Speakers page.

Best Practices for Software Development in Government

Last winter I received a request from the US Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Policy to come Charleston and meet with a group of innovative law enforcement execs. If you belong to the public safety community or are interested in how governments are making collaboratives work, a copy of my presentation is viewable on google from this link:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfj65hxm_1404gk5kchg

Matsue “Ruby City” Journey

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=67348

Matsue City is a beautiful and remote city located in the Shimane Prefecture of Japan. The region has drawn national recognition for the Matsue “Ruby City” project, a highly innovative initiative to promote open source software through a collaborative partnership created by local industry, academia and government.

I was very fortunate to have been invited to participate in a number of events in early February to help share what the state of Oregon, industry, government and the Open Source Lab (OSL) has learned though its years in supporting the growth of the Open Source Community. The visit included meetings with Shimane University’s President Honda; Matsue’s mayor; Shimane Prefecture’s governor; keynoting at a seminar for industry and government; addressing the 37th Open Source Salon of the Open Source Software Society Shimane; spending time with colleagues from Japan’s IPA Open Source Lab (their national referendum on OSS); National Applied Communication Labs and Mr. Inoue and Matz; touring historic and scenic sights in Matsue – a beautiful blend of historic and traditional architecture and modern as well – and enjoying many wonderful meals courtesy of my hosts.

Many thanks especially go to Mr. Doi from the City of Matuse, to Mr. Noda of Shimane University, and especially to Mr. Tansho my host and translator – and of course to Shimane University which sponsored my visit. The dedication of these three individuals to this project is amazing as is the commitment of everyone I met from all sectors – education, private industry and government.

BTW plans are underway for a “Ruby for Business” conference fall of 2009 in Matsue, drop a line if you are intersted in talking with the organizers.

Oregon’s Health Record Bank Project

ohrb

I have not been tracking Oregon’s Health Record Bank (HRB) project closely the last several months after it slowed progress, but current documents are now available for this project. Oregon’s Department of Human Services Office of Medical Assistance Program (DHS OMAP) was granted $5.5mm as transformational technology in 2007. Open source technology and Oregon’s local resources and domain expertise where named in the original grant proposal. I think this is an important project because it distinguishes itself from most other HRB projects in that the information is patient centric. Under the proposed approach, the patient, not the provider, is the owner of their own medical information. Score one for individual information rights, with a difference that can truely mean life and death.

The project was scheduled to let a Request for Proposal (RFP) this month, February 2009. Oregon’s DSH has a big challenge on their hands as they must consider the simultanious replacement of their thirty year old (yes – 30) Medical Management Information System (MMIS) at the same time, presenting both an opportunity and a challenge. More information is available at the official project web site.

You and also click on the architecture slide below to download the current project overview.