GOSCON AWARDS for Open Business Use in Government Nominations are now being accepted for the 2009 Excellence Awards for Open Source Business Use in Government.

It’s true.  After five years of operation of the Government Open Source Conference, we’re looking forward to recognizing government employees who have made significant accomplishments in the application of Open Source Technology to meet government business or mission requirements.

To nominate a government employee or project, visit www.goscon.org/awards for information and an on-line submission form.  Deadline is Friday Oct 23 2009.

Not too long ago I attended TransparencyCamp in DC and led a discussion on how to work with government.  The session was intended for technologists and advocates. I was pleasantly

surprised to find one of the participants was a senate staffer.  After listening to much of the discussion she explained that she had worked on a bill that included a

role for open source software which eventually failed to move forward.  Her question to me:  why was that no one from the open source community stepped forward or offered to help answer questions.  Where were they?  Her question gave me pause.

Several moths later, the cavalry has arrived.  Along with the town crier, the

librarian, the community manager, the mayor and a cadre of plumbers.  The newly formed coalition is “Open Source for America”, and I’m pleased to have bee

n a par

t of its founding effort.  Read more at the association web site.

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.

Download current project overview

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

event on: Yahoo or Calagator

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”

The one of the early pioneers of community source model is Dr. Brad Wheeler at Indiana University.  In late 2006 the Open Source Lab management team interviewed him by video conference to extract some advice for others on creating governance for a community source project.  I came across the resulting  debrief and thought I’d put it somewhere it could be shared more broadly.  Here it is for download:

“Community Source” Project Governance:
The Sakai Project as a Potential Reference Model for Public Sector Community Source Development

I think it’s valuable to consider that the model of shared development suggest benefits beyond sharing the cost and resulting application, such as sharing business practices and processes, knowledge base and documentation.  But I digress.  We’ll share more from the experts from our Open Government Collaboratives 2008 panel as soon as we get the conference media through GOSCON post-production.

I’ve had numerous calls recently asking me about the (to simplify) open source version of PBX software, Asterisk.  Several years ago the State of Oregon extensively tested and deployed an Asterisk server, then later developed several cost-effective applications on the platform which their agency customer could not have otherwise afforded. They wrote up a brief case study on their experience, so I thought I’d post it here for sharing. Kudos to the Department of Administrative Services, Data and Video Services for being ahead of their time on this one. Today, numerous governmental agencies have deployed Asterisk. Here in Oregon, that includes the Portland Metropolitan Service District.

Here’s the text sans the helpful graphics included in the original document:

State of Oregon
Open Source Application Use in the Enterprise

Case Study: Asterisk used to create powerful audio conferencing service
For large Agency user.

Background:

Data and Video Services (DVS), a business section within the Information Resources Management Division (IRMD) offers a wide variety of audio and video services to state agencies and other public service, educational, or other non-profit groups. DVS has just recently begun to offer an audio conferencing service with recording. The service offers users a cost effective solution for audio conferencing, Audio/video conferencing and audio session recording.

DVS has worked closely with many of the groups who are using the conferencing service to make sure that special user needs be met to satisfy their business requirements.

One of the largest subscribers to the conferencing services is the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). The OAH hears the contested cases of almost 80 agencies, including unemployment insurance, motor vehicle licensing, social services, licensing boards and commissions, forestry, environmental quality, agriculture, child support, and many others.

The OAH conducts an average of 500 hearings a week via audio conference. Hearings are scheduled for either 1½ or 2 hour time blocks and vary in size from 3 to 6 participants.

Data and Video Services worked with the Hearings group to develop a service that met the following criteria:
• 150 ports available on the audio bridge. The service would allow up to 150 concurrent ports to be used in any combination of conference events.
• Set up different blocks of numbers (both toll and toll-free) to allow OAH to correctly bill back to appropriate program groups.
• Match audio conference access codes to OAH case numbers.
• Bilingual IVR greeting and conference access messages.
• An automated centralized digital recording system to replace existing manual tape recordings that administrative law judges were making on site.
• Web-based recording management. The system would allow judges to start and stop recording sessions and verify that their conference was being recorded.
• An automated uploading process to transfer recordings to a designated OAH file repository. The transfer process needed to include a checksum process to verify that the file transfer was successfully accomplished and to ensure that the original hearing recording file had not been altered.
• The option of adding video endpoint to conferences in the future.

Before the advent of the automated recording and transfer process the OAH Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) conducted hearings using their PBX built-in conference features and recording using a desktop phone recording system. While functional, the system was not able to grow to match the OAH’s needs. By utilizing a combination of existing conference bridge infrastructure and open source software, DVS was able to provide a feature-rich centralized solution for minimal expense.

OAH Conference Service without automated Recording

Initially, DVS provided only audio conferencing services. The service was created by utilizing a Radvision Gateway to perform IVR and TDM-to-H.323 conversion. The conferences were—and still are—being created on Radvision ViaIP bridges.

The OAH Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) continued to manually record every conference and send the tapes in for archiving and transcription, but the judges and hearing participants called in to a scheduled DVS conference bridge to conduct the hearing

As conference use continued to grow the OAH asked DVS if it was possible to add additional features, most notable central recording, to the service. DVS investigated commercial solutions that could have offered the additional features, but was not able to find a product on the market that could integrate into the existing infrastructure cost-effectively. Consequently, DVS developed an internal solution based on the open source Asterisk voice over IP system and coupled it with existing Cisco Call Manager resources.

Building a Custom Solution

DVS engineering staff conducted an initial search to determine if there was an available commercial product that would meet the criteria for centralized recording and monitoring services and that could be easily scaled up to meet future recording demand. We were not able to find a commercial offering that was able to satisfy these criteria.

Staff then researched the open source market, and were quite pleased to find, after conducting a series of tests, that the Asterisk VOIP PBX software provided a very cost effective, flexible, and scalable solution for centralized recording and monitoring services.

Changes were also made to the media termination (TDM-to-H.323) and IVR system along with development of recording and monitoring functions via the Asterisk PBX. These changes needed to be made to accommodate growth of the audio conferencing and recording service and to provide a method to more easily address IVR message tree complexity and conference security features.
The Asterisk server is being used to create digital recordings of the hearings, to FTP completed hearing files to a designated OAH file server, and to provide Judges with the ability to start and stop recordings as well as monitor conference recording status during a conference via a web interface.

A Cisco Call Manager has replaced the Radvision gateway and is being used to provide PSTN media termination, expanded IVR functionality, and conference security.

Process Description: What’s Going On

• The Cisco Call manager provides the PSTN termination and the IVR functions (using Cisco IPCC) and the Call Manager is routing participants to the MCU via an H.323 stream.
• The Asterisk system provides the recording and file transfer features. To initiate a recording, the ALJ dials into a specified phone number that rings through the Call Manager infrastructure to the Asterisk server. The ALJ enters their conference code into the Asterisk IVR and the Asterisk server attaches a recording process to the call and connects the call back through the Call Manager to the MCU via H.323.
• When the conference ends, the Asterisk server creates a checksum and transfers the recording and the checksum files to a repository on a server on the OAH network.

DVS staff developed a web-based interface using Apache and PHP. The web interface is installed on the Asterisk server and allows the ALJ to stop, start, and verify the status of the recording. The Asterisk Manager API serves as the interface between PHP and the Asterisk server.

The communication path into and out of the Asterisk server uses a PRI interface. This particular method was chosen after testing showed that SIP traffic put too great a load on the Call Manager servers and there were unacceptable dropouts occurring with calls using the H.323 stack.

The Final Analysis

The Asterisk VOIP PBX provided the perfect solution that allowed DVS to craft a custom service that we could not find in a commercial product. Parts of the service existed but were prohibitively expensive, and other automated recording and storage features did not exist. The PBX is very robust, has performed extremely well in a production environment, and has provided the kind of flexibility and extensibility to allow DVS staff to easily develop the necessary processes and interfaces to offer a reliable, easy to use, inexpensive, centralized recording function as part of the DVS audio conferencing service.

(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 well as open source tools and methodologies as they are applied to this domain.  According to Bryant, “Exciting developments are taking place in public health IT world-wide. The growing use of open source in public health IT projects and application development is one of the most important trends we’ve seen in the last five years.  With increased economic pressures and an aging population, governments and vendors are collaborating in new ways.  This is transformational technology and a fresh approach to public-private partnerships that serve the pubic well.”
The GOSCON Open Public Health IT track features an executive panel that will discuss the potential implications of current initiatives around the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) as well as frameworks for interoperability, funding models, data sharing, and privacy. Rick Howard (CIO, Oregon Department of Human Services), Bernard Golden (CEO, Navica), and Kathleen Connor (Principal Program Manager, Health Solutions Group, Microsoft Corp.) will participate.
An award-winning application developed by the Health Service Executive in Ireland (HSE) to support health service planning, epidemiology, and environmental incident management will be presented, as will TriSano® an open source citizen-focused disease surveillance application developed as a collaborative project with Collaborative Software Initiative and the State of Utah. In addition, lessons learned in transitioning from proprietary software to OpenELIS, an open enterprise laboratory information system, will be presented.
“We’re excited about the promise that macro trends like open source offer to Oregon’s health and human services delivery systems,” says Rick Howard, CIO for the Oregon Department of Human Services. “We’re currently looking for the best approach to the challenges of customizing and supporting open source. GOSCON helps us find solutions by bringing public health agency executives together to learn about important projects and build relationships that can lead to productive collaborations.”
Stuart Cohen, CEO of Collaborative Software Initiative (CSI), adds: “Over the past four years, GOSCON has proven itself to be the platform where important projects are born.  This year’s conference highlights the advances we’ve made in building new collaborative models that create user-centric solutions at a fraction of the cost, nurturing innovative solutions to complex issues.”
Event Details
Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON 2008)
Transforming the delivery of government services
Dates:
October 20, 2008 – International Open ICT Summit
October 21-22 – GOSCON 2008
October 23 – “Tour de Lab” at Oregon State University Open Source Lab
Location:
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Portland Downtown-Convention Center
Portland, Oregon USA
Price and registration:
International Open ICT Summit: US$125 early registration for employees in the Government or public sector; US$225 for private sector attendees
GOSCON 2-day conference: $225 early registration for employees in the Government or public sector; US$325 for private sector attendees. Includes 3 tracks: Management, Implementation, Open Public Health IT
Tour de Lab: US$125 all participants
Participants can register for each event individually, or register for all three and receive a discount. Early registration ends September 26, 2008. For more information and to register, please visit www.goscon.org.
About the Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON)
Now in its fourth year, GOSCON stands unrivaled as an open source software conference targeted specifically to agency CIOs and management-level personnel, their planning, policy and procurement staff. This year the conference is extending its reach to meet growing interest among the international community by conducting the first annual International Open Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Summit on October 20th.
GOSCON provides a unique educational forum for government IT executives to understand both the business case and practical applications for open source software solutions in transforming the delivery of government services. Government agencies and their development partners will discuss lessons learned in the creation and integration of open source solutions into real-world environments.  A demonstration hall will provide attendees with an opportunity to view projects and available products and services. The conference will close with a tour of the Oregon State University Open Source Lab.
About the Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSL)
The Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSL) creates a unique atmosphere of innovation for students, faculty, and staff by providing an open, diverse environment for development and collaboration. As part of its mission, the OSL offers a professional hosting environment to the open source community, as well as software development services to industry.  With its world-class infrastructure, the OSL hosts and supports some of the world’s largest open source projects such as the Linux Kernel, Plone, Drupal, Gentoo, Debian, Apache, The FOSSology Project, and OpenOffice. Its outreach and educational programs include GOSCON, the Government Open Source Conference.
###

• 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"

The top rationale for not adopting open-source software was organizational reluctance to change, according to the survey. This reflects my experience in early forays into the desktop arena in Oregon, as an example, where a pilot in a large agency netted positive technical and cost results, but management was dread to manage the inevitable reaction to change by personnel, trumping other benefits.

If you are interested in the base-line survey conducted by the FOSA, which is an industry partnership of HP, Intel and Red Hat, you may…

• read more about it in a recent Computer World article
• visit the FOSA web site to see the survey results (registration is required) or
• read about the results in FOSA Press Release.