Google have announced the 2009 Summer of Code programme. If you are an organisation which would like to get student help in moving forward your Open Source project now it the time to get involved. Last year 1000 students took part ,working on projects from 175 organisations, including OSGeo and OpenStreetMap.
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
As the Guardian Technology blog notes the UK government is once again trying to push Government Departments into looking at Open Source software solutions at least as an alternative to the proprietary software we all know and love.
This is not the big stick approach which has been used in some other countries, here the policy is from a procurement perspective to just make sure open source solutions are see viewed on an equal footing, taking into account the total cost of ownership of new systems recognising the many years of support and maintenance that will follow the initial purchase.
This I hope will not just be seen as the simplistic religious debate between Windows v Linux, Microsoft Office v Open Office, or MySQL v Oracle, because actually it is not in terms of packaged software where the real benefits can be found.
The real big costs in Government IT projects go into the bespoke software development customising or building additional functionality around off the shelf software like Oracle or SAP, or from the GI perspective ArcGIS.
This is where this is massive potential, for much of the code developed solves very similar problems for different departments and agencies across government. As things currently stand none of this code is reused and each department pays for similar code to be developed for them, often I’m afraid to say by the same vendors.
So for example in the GI world, the data management systems developed to build and maintain the maps for Ordnance Survey is not so different from that needed by the UK Hydrographic Survey, or at a larger scale the tools used by the Land Registry to maintain your title deed plans are not so different to what is needed to build and maintain OS Mastermap.
If the code developed to meet these needs was made open source, the initial code base could be used and maintained by all government agencies each benefiting from potential improvements developed by the others, and the tax payer never have to fund more reinvention.
There is once small hitch with this, companies like Google are very open about their use and support of open source software tools, which form the backbone of their back office systems, and which can be maintained and extended internally by skilled engineers.
Over the last 10 years most of the IT expertise has left government departments, meaning that very few actual software engineers or developers are left within government.. They have all been outsourced. This means that the potential benefit is reduced internal maintenance of code and its development cannot occur within house, another reason perhaps government should think about re-skilling in IT ?
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
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| From Planes |
Happy Birthday to the Boeing 747 which first flew on this day in 1969. The risk this project represented for Boeing is often overlooked, had it failed so would have Boeing itself.
Of course it was a great sucess and its impact on the world has been profound, long distance air travel for “normal people” would not have been possible without the dramatic changes in the economics of flying that the 747 introduced.
Today the 747 has flown 3.5 billion people equivalent to halt the worlds population, or twice the number of people who access the internet.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
A brilliant result for mySociety and all who support openness in government, I guess that includes President Obama.
“And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”
Today the UK Government shelved plans to exclude MP’s expenses from the Freedom of Information Act, a result of an active online campaign and the resulting loss of cross party support.
As Tom points out, this is a real example of the potential of citizen power in the age of the internet.
Great Stuff, and huge kudos to mySociety.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
I really enjoyed my time at Autodesk and was sad to leave a great company when I left for my adventure at Ordnance Survey. Autodesk was an exciting place to work, very focused on design, well managed and lead by Carol Bartz. Her vision and leadership was a key part to the success of Autodesk, in particular making it a billion dollar company within a few years.
I can imagine that her leadership style which was direct to say the least, may not seem very “yahoo like” but it worked at Autodesk.
I remember a corporate redesign which resulted in everybody getting new business cards with just a email address rather than a name on the front (very .com of Autodesk at the time), so I was ed.parsons@autodesk.com. Now a few of my colleagues who had PhD’s or letters after their names were a little disappointed that their full title would not be on the card.
In front of 1000 staff at an all-hands sales meeting Carol addressed the issue; “If you don’t like your new business cards, F*ck off and go work for somebody else” – can’t imagine Jerry Yang doing that.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Just got back from doing a plenary presentation at ESRI UK’s kick-off meeting, wow has that organisation grown some.. came back on the No. 285 bus – I do love these local meetings 🙂
The topic of my presentation was the increasingly mainstream appeal of geospatial technology, not so much the geoweb/neogeography of the tech community but the applications that have real mass-market appeal like the Santa tracking sites over christmas, and yesterdays announcement of geotagging in iPhoto 09.
The mainstream applications all share a common characteristic they are from a user perspective simple applications which provide a useful purpose / entertainment, but which nevertheless are built on a hidden geospatial infrastructure which may be very complex and sophisticated.
Now from what I have seen, iPhoto 09 may have quite limited geotagging capabilities compared to existing services, however the interface is very appealing and the process of geo-tagging straightforward. And it is of course simple, there is no mention of reverse geocoding or geoparsing, all of which is part of the process and necessary – but hidden.
The future of geospatial I believe will increasingly take this form, where complex geospatial functionality disappears hidden behind great interface design and brilliant process engineering.
Today I was drawn to use a wonderful Douglas Adams anecdote.. Douglas was told that one day all houses would have a centralised electric motor to run all sorts of home appliances, and what better job could one have than to be an electric motor repair man.
The study of electric motors was thus recommended as “the” thing to study. Of course today there are no centralised electric motors, and no electric motor repair men, but our houses are full of electric motors invisible in devices all around the house (Just counted over 20 in the very room I am sitting in, computers, hi-fi, coffee maker , etc.).
The parallel is clear for electric motor read GIS.. in the future, important and even more widespread than today; but ultimately invisible.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network
Your help is needed.. if you have any local knowledge of Gaza please respond to Mikel’s request none of the online sites have adequate mapping and given the urgent nature of the situation this needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network
Having last night watched the excellent “The Lives of Others” DVD last night, a film about the activities of the Stasi in East Germany, the suggestion that the Police should hack more is more than a little scary. So we can expect the police to be running around installing key-loggers and trojans to any one who might disagree with the government of the day ?
And who do you go to now if you suspect the men sitting in the car outside you house are trying to hack into your wifi, the Police.. it might be the police in the first place.
This is a story of most interest to those outside of the UK however, as most IP traffic in the UK is already intercepted by GCHQ via their black boxes at UK ISP’s, a benefit of the nearly 10 year old Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.. and confirmed by Constable Jones of Twickenham Police Station in his Vauxhall Astra parked outside.
From the cool photography of Wai Fong Fung, Christmas Greetings from a Galaxy far far away…
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.. with my feet up actually.