Monday, August 18, 2003

Lighting the way to eGovernment? Tom Adelstein writes in the LINUX Journal: eGovernment applications need to cost less, allow for rapid development, provide a user-friendly experience for constituents and offer enhanced security. Linux provides everything eGovernment initiatives need. I agree with the first statement.  I think the jury's still out on the second, but we do have a LAMP environment and are beginning to deploy more applications on Linux.  We're certainly not going to throw away everything we have accomplished in other environments overnight, nor is the overwhelming core of technical support and development resources we have in place ready to make such a leap.  On the other hand, there are some intriguing opportunities. Tom goes on to write about sharing applications between government agencies and organizations.  Does that have to occur only within the Linux environment?  Brian Sweeting addresses the same issue.  Over the weekend, I discovered Government Forge, a website dedicated to providing free and open source software to state and local governments.  It appears that there is a tie between Adelstein, the Journal, and Forge.  Let's keep our eye on this and look for opportunities to contribute. 4:01:10 PM    comment []

NGA Online Toolkit The National Governors Association has developed a guide for enhancing online solutions in three areas: education, medicaid, and homeland security. Government has a hard time effectively funding egov initiatives because the best ones cross agency boundaries.  Here's what a recent editorial in eWeek has to say about budget cuts at the federal level: "If you think your IT budget has problems with, say, a 10 percent cut, look at the federal government's E-Gov initiative, which is now in line to get about 2 percent of the amount initially requested by the Bush administration. Is this any way to run a government more like a business—an e-business in particular?" The European Commission has proposed the development of a new IDABC program (Interoperable Delivery of pan-European eGovernment Services to Public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens).  Smartcard news from the UK: "The (British) Government is intent on creating a suitable environment, generally by supporting and, indeed, championing the necessary infrastructure, for the timely issuance of multi-application, interoperable, smart cards." 8:51:40 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.