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January 05, 2004
Tom Adelstein on The Open Source Dilemma for Governments
In an essay on the failure of governments to use Open Source Software (OSS) and open standards, Tom Adelstein bemoans a situation that I understand only too well:
Recently, I received two requests to assist a local government and a university in the same area of deploying justice databases. The requests involved implementing a new, comprehensive application to provide services and a tracking system using a web-enabled database-driven application. The requirements of the applications seemed simple and with the use of the Global Justice Data Model, I estimated delivery within 90 days. In both instances, the people controlling those projects dismissed implementation of the standards-based model. What should one do when government entities miss their opportunities and disregard new standards? The general public realizes the time pressure to meet new homeland security objectives and want fast progress. Those who make information technology decisions today can effect the public safety in the near future. No enforcement agency exists as yet. Here's even more of a rub: The local government unit will spend $125,000 on an existing software system which will face deprecation within two years. The university may fail to deliver on the second phase of its implementation. The cost could have come in at $45,000 using Open Source Software (OSS) such as Linux or FreeBSD, the Apache Web Server, the MySQL relational database and a combination of the Java program language, Perl, PHP and/or Python. Such systems exists in Rhode Island and at the US Census Bureau, if one needs a precedent. Additionally, the same $45,000 would have paid for both systems and if others wished to deploy it, no further costs would exist for them. Finally, the money to build the system would have come from existing public funding.From The Open Source Dilemma for Governments
Referenced Mon Jan 05 2004 21:09:37 GMT-0700
Tim goes on to speak specifically about the Amber Alert standard and the relative costs of an OSS solution and a proprietary solution. I have a whole PowerPoint deck on a national alerting system that I put together a year ago. There's a desperate need and properly implemented, it fills more needs than just Amber Alerts. Imagine point specific alerts based on your personal information from multiple players delivered to you and way you like. The trick, is not building it---as Tom points out, its fairly cheap if the expense is shared---but operating it in a secure and reliable manner. That's where the money is.
09:17 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Holiday Reading: Three Looks at Today's Technology
I spent a fair amount of time over the holidays reading. Some, like The Da Vinci Code and Teeth of the Tiger were just for entertainment. But others, while fun, were more for education. Three of the books I read in the latter category were Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold, ME++ by William Mitchell, and Natural-Born Cyborgs by Andy Clark. In some ways these are all the same book, just with a slightly different perspective. They even contain some of the same stories. Even so, the perspective that each author gave the topic held my interest.
Howard Rheingold's been the editor of several culturally important media properties such as HotWired and The Whole Earth Review, and he has a history as a commentator on the social aspects of technology. At first I thought his book was about mobile computing, but that's just one of the primary memes in a work that's more about the social networks being enabled by recent technology shifts. Mobile is part of that, but its more than mobile, it always connected and the blending of the technology with our lives.
William J. Mitchell's book is, as I said, vaguely about the same thing, but his background is architecture and the book follows from his study of the environment that we all live in. Mitchell is Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. You may not think that puts him at the heart of today's technology innovations, but he's been associated with MIT's Media Lab for some time and has written two other books on the impact of technology on the spaces we live in. The book sees the augmentation of human intelligence and capabilities by computers as just one more in a long line of technology innovations, such as water supply systems and sewers, that have extended out life support systems outside of the "skin bag."
If that idea catches you, then you're definitely going to want to read Clarks book. Clark is the Director of the Cognitive Science program at Indiana University. Clark takes the position that we don't need to wait for chip implants to consider ourselves cyborgs--we're cyborgs right now and have been since the invention of writing at least and perhaps before that. Clark comes back to the theme time and again that the distinction between what's inside the "skin bag" and what's outside is not very important in the end analysis. In Clarks world, cell phones are brain upgrades available on every street corner.
If you're only going to read one of these books, you probably ought to go with Smart Mobs since that's the least specialized of the three unless your interests lean more toward architecture or cognitive psychology. Even so, I'd recommend all three. They're short and easy to read and the difference in perspective about the same ideas is intriguing.