(September 23rd, 2008)
Posted by Deborah Bryant in Local Government, Resource Materials, State Government, Technology.
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
No comments »
(September 21st, 2008)
Posted by Deborah Bryant in Events, National Government.
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
No comments »
(September 20th, 2008)
Posted by Deborah Bryant in Local Government, Resource Materials, Technology.
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.
No comments »
(September 18th, 2008)
Posted by Deborah Bryant in Events, GOSCON, National Government, Projects, State Government.
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 Read the rest of this entry »
No comments » 
