We’ll Always Have Paris | Capitale du Libre Conference Sept 24-45

Someone will have Paris – not me this week – but I want to thank Alexander Zapolsky of Linagora for kindly inviting me to speak on September 24 at the Capitale du Libre conference  on the wonderfully titled panel “The Public Sector is Crazy for Open Source Softwares”.  This highly popular event, underwritten in part by the French government and commercial sponsors draws technical, business, academic  and business crowds en masse.

We won’t likely see the US government sponsor an open source conference any time soon, but it is good to see federal agencies increasingly use open source in their operations.

Back in Paris, the economic development wonks will debate where the money may be in open source business models for their respective countries.  In the US, the IT ecosystem continues to grow, bolstering successful enterprise deployments on open source software in all levels of government.

So if you happen to be in Paris, it’s free.  And Libre too.
Capitale du Libre conference

Maison Internationale, Paris, France – September, 24th and 25th, 2008
17 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris

Small Town, Big Use of Open Source Software

One of the local government stories (success and challenge) we’d hoped to see at GOSCON this year was from the City of Northglenn, Colorado.  Christine Martinez,  formerly a systems analyst there, can’t join us this year but she was kind enough to share her slide set on that city’s extensive use of open source software which she presented last year at the 2007 National Association of Government Webmasters Conference held in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

The project list covered in the presentation includes:

  • Joomla! CMS (and custom supporting applications)
  • PHPSurveyor
  • WebDocs
  • PHPLists
  • NGDIS (Northglenn Document Imaging System)
  • Police Bulletin Board

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of E-Government.  Northglenn’s out-the-box thinking netted web services to city employees that they could use without the IT department’s intervention.  And how many small towns have a document imaging system?  If you’re living in a small town, government transparency by way of the Internet depends on the webmaster’s work load and vacation schedule.  Good Content Management Systems (CMS) make it easy for non-technical public service employees to share  what’s up at your seat of government.  Impressive and resourceful.

You can view the presentation on GoogleDocs.

Public Health IT and Open Source Software | Focus at GOSCON 2008

I’m happy to report GOSCON this year is featuring more government open source projects and implementations that ever.  I’m especially excited about our Open Public Health IT track which covers the spectrum between local and international governments and vendors.  GOSCON is all about building the IT ecosystem and I’m pleased to say this will be an outstanding showcase innovative work done by agencies as thoughtful stewards of our tax dollars.  Enough said.  Here’s the press release in full for your perusal:

(okay – must add….  you can read the case study for the Health Atlas Ireland project on the epractice.eu web site).

Portland, Ore. – September 18, 2008 – Deb Bryant, Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) director, announced today that the fourth annual 2008 conference will feature an Open Public Health IT track to explore both a strategic direction for open source in the public health sector as well as real-world applications that are in use today by agencies around the world.
For the first time, GOSCON is bringing together thought leaders in government, open source, and public health who will share their deep, practical experience in public health, enterprise architectures, standards, as Continue reading “Public Health IT and Open Source Software | Focus at GOSCON 2008”

City of Newport News back in it again with Open eGov

Open eGov
Open eGov

Open eGov Wins a second award, returns to GOSCON to tell story and share software

One of government’s biggest champions of the enthusiastic yet reasoned use of open source software is Andy Stein, IT director, City of Newport News Virginia. Last year he and his team won a prestigious award for the Plone CMS based E-Government platform they developed for the city then shared. More recently the project was awarded the 2008 Digital Government Achievement Award in the Government to Government category (read their press release on the Center’s web site).

All in all it was a good day for Virginia which received two 2008 Digital Government Achievement Awards plus a Best of the Web award for its outstanding state portal. The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy’s e-forms initiative, the Department of Taxation’s telework initiative and the Open eGov initiative were all winners.

Is it something in the water? That’s the question I want to ask Virginia secretary of technology Aneesh Chopra when he delivers the GOSCON closing keynote this October 22 in Portland, OR. Congrats to the Commonwealth of VA and thanks for your substantive contributions to the Government Open Source Conference.

See you at OSCON!


OSCON 2008

If you’re in Portland, Oregon next week at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention – OSCON – be sure to drop by and say hello.  I’ll be there with staff and students from the OSU Open Source Lab in Booth 401.  On July 23 and 24, you’ll be able to take a Virtual Tour of our data center and talk with staff and students.  OSL is home to many notable open source software projects and organizational infrastructure such as Apache Foundation, Linux Foundation & the Kernel, Drupal, OpenOffice.org, Gentoo and Debian Linux.

I’ll be on the lookout for interesting projects and people to showcase in the upcoming International Open ICT Summit, a new feature of GOSCON (the Government Open Source Conference – not affiliated with O’Reilly Media, but everyone at O’Reilly has been very supportive of our non-profit conference which focuses on public sector IT management, planning, legal and procurement personnel).

If you’re not registered for OSCON but would like to come see the exhibits, you can register for a  gratis pass .

Open Source Software to Support EPA’s National Environmental Information Exchange Network

I’m not a fan of simply passing along a press release, but I found this one to exemplifiy the growing trend I see in open source software in government;

  • OSS adoption and use is moving beyond tools and infrastructure and up the stack
  • More vendors are becoming involved in providing services and support, key to successful government IT strategies (proprietary or open source)
  • And something I’ve been saying for four years; the greatest value to governments lies in the model itself, creating collaborative communities with common program missions and business requirements.

"CGI Announces Open Source Software to Support EPA’s National Environmental Information Exchange Network

FAIRFAX, VA, June 3 — CGI Federal, Inc., a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group Inc. (NYSE: GIB; TSX: GIB.A), today announced the release of the first Open Source Node 2.0 software product to be available to EPA data exchange partners on the National Environmental Information Exchange Network (Exchange Network). The CGI Node 2.0 software is offered to Exchange Network partners and other interested members of the environmental community to give them capabilities to publish, share, and gain access to environmental data for improved decision making.

The National Environmental Information Exchange Network includes EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX), the point of entry for Agency environmental data exchanges. Together, CDX and the Exchange Network partners’ nodes are the infrastructure that enable efforts to collect, share and monitor the environmental data used to assess the impact of global warming, monitor the safety of our water supplies, gather geographic information on sources of pollution, and encourage overall excellence in the study and stewardship of our environment.

CGI Node 2.0 represents an expansion of this community to allow sharing across federal, state, commercial and citizen boundaries related to software development and technological innovation. It allows users to collaborate, publish, and discover environmental information and services across disparate systems. The node’s dashboard allows for quick and easy reporting, scheduling, and administration capabilities.

"Flexible and rapid data exchange capabilities are critical to responding to environmental challenges faced by government agencies and their trading partners," said Melanie Morris, Chief of Data Integration Division, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. "Establishing the building blocks of an Open Source community that supports environmental collaboration and decision making will help stakeholders leverage their investments and capitalize on shared business drivers."

CGI Vice President Kenyon Wells added: "CGI is proud of our long history in helping EPA meet its mission of protecting the environment. Our open source software is the latest example of how CGI invests in the success of its clients and will allow Exchange Network partners to save money while promoting standardization for the sharing of important environmental data."

CGI will be hosting a Webinar to demonstrate the CGI Node 2.0 on June 4th. For more information about this event or about the Node product please refer to the CGI Environmental Practice Website: www.cgi.com/environment

Source: CGI GROUP INC. CONTACT: Peter Cutler, Director, Communications, (703) 227-6933, peter.cutler@cgifederal.com"