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:
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
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.
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:
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.
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.
I’m lucky! and get to attend TransparancyCamp in Washington D.C. this weekend, February 28 - March 1. Styled after BarCamp, this event filled up in no time. Take a look at who will be there (independant developers, NGOs and government folks too) and you’ll quickly see why I’m excited about participating.
This un-conference is about convening a trans-partisan tribe of open government advocates from all walks — government representatives, technologists, developers, NGOs, wonks & activists — to share knowledge on how to use new technologies to make our government transparent and meaningfully accessible to the public.
Here’s their focus:
1) Technology development for enhancing government transparency
2) Community building for the transparency in government tribe
3) Talks, workshops and coding sessions to better equip technologists with the skills needed to deliver an Open Government.
I’ll be one of the less technical folks there, but hope to contribute to #2 above, and share what I know from my walk in government shoes.
Although the event filled up some time ago, I encourage you to sign up for their list for the next one (more than likely) or consider a small sponsorship. The event wiki can be found at https://barcamp.pbwiki.com/TransparencyCamp.
I just returned from Matsue, Japan, also known famously as “Ruby City” after the programming language whose inventor lives there.
During my stay there I provided the keynote for a Shimane University-sponsored seminar on Open Source Software, Industry and Academic collaboration. It was an honor to represent some of the institutions and groups in Oregon, the successes and challenges we’ve faced in using, promoting, developing and supporting a full open eco-system in our somewhat unique state. Key to my message and encouragement to participants from all sectors of their region was this; if you want to demonstrate the value of open source to non-technical constituencies, identify and collaborate on a project with clear public benefit.
One of the panelists was Mr. Hatta from Japan’s Information-Technology Promotion Agency’s (IPA). He told me later he changed his presentation as I spoke, struck by the proposition of public benefit projects. I’ll ask for his presentation and share it here soon.
His wrap-up recommendation: create a public benefit project and the suggestion that project might be an Open Source Election system, apparently an idea with universal appeal/compelling need.
I’ll come back soon to sharing more about my travels to Matsue City, their impressive open source software initiative, the investment their government has made, and the outstanding collaboration between the university, industry and public sectors.
I’d also be remiss in my public benefit duties if I did not provide a final plug for the February 18th Open Source Digital Voting Foundation’s (OSDV.org) “TrustTheVote” intro in Portland, Oregon (see prior post for agenda). I’m looking forward to introducing them to my colleagues in Japan soon, and looking forward to hearing from Gregory Miller and John Sebes, the co-founders, even sooner.
I’ve recently been asked to join as an adviser to the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation. In my view, this is one of the most important open source projects around for the US system of democracy. I was deeply impressed by their open standards specification, public trust approach and the work they’ve done thus far - with little public fan fare - to establish the non-partisan initiative which has become known as “TrustTheVote!”.
Recognizing a large, active OSS community exists in Oregon, the OSDV is coming to Portland on February 18th to introduce their project. Although the meeting content is designed for a technical audience, the project overview and progress-to-date would be of interest to many.
Here’s a description of the event. You can also view details including a map to the event at Portland’s CubeSpace on Yahoo or Calagator. If you’re in the area, hope to see you there!
TrustTheVote! intro in Portland, Oregon, Feb 18, 2009
Discover this imperative “public digital works project” of the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation. The OSDV Foundation is a Silicon Valley based public benefits corporation whose mission is to work to restore trust in how America votes through the design, development, and demonstration of open source digital voting technology.
Join us to learn details about the “TrustTheVote Project,” a well funded non-profit effort which has been under the radar for 2 years. The OSDV Foundation is now raising public awareness, and expanding efforts including a planned development center in Portland, Oregon.
Our guests are two executives of the Foundation including its Chief Technology Officer. Their presentation will:
Introduce the project, its motivation, founding, and development efforts to date;
Walk through the TrustTheVote technology road map and review major projects underway;
Discuss development philosophies and approaches including experience-driven design and test-driven agile development;
Review opportunities for systems architects, software developers, SDQA/test specialists, and user experience designers;
Cover plans to expand the volunteer developer teams, future opportunities for senior members of technical staff, and opportunities for you to get involved.
Presenters:
Gregory Miller, Chief Development Officer E. John Sebes, Chief Technology Officer
I’m taking a trip to Matsue between March 8th and March 14th 2009.
Lecture, participate in Shimane University’Project: “Stabilization and Business Models for Open Source Software through the Cooperation of Industry, Government, Academia, and the Software Developers’ Community”
Last week I posted the transcript of Marcos Vinicius Ferreira Mazoni comments addressing the International Open ICT Summit at GOSCON on the sustained government initiative in Brazil to use free open source software and open standards. Mazoni’s encouragement to increase the dialog between countries resonated with participants in Portland and those joining by video conference, representing a half dozen continents.
The original video is now available in Portuguese, with English subtitles and runs five minutes.
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:
