OCITA: Regionalization of County/City Government

OPENING UP TO OPEN SOURCE & IT SHARING

Jill Miller ZimonThe Civic Commons EfficientGovNetwork

http://theciviccommons.com/egnjillmzimon@theciviccommons.com

May 18, 2012

Sponsored by the Ohio County/City Information Technology Association (OCITA)

Hosted by Cuyahoga County Government IT

Cleveland Metroparks - Fairview Park

Mom, Where Does Linux Come From?

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

IntroductionBasics:

•Why Me?

•What it is

•Myths

•Pros and Cons

•Examples

•Resources

Goals:

•Get to a common understanding

•Raise awareness

What is Open Source?

Learn About Open Source Software

December 2008 Copyright © Alolita Sharma; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

A presentation from the Open Source Initiaivehttp://opensource.org

Myths on Open Source…Busted• Security concerns…no more than proprietary; openness allows for

agility & control; development of security tools

• Lack of support…community; proprietary demise

• Migration of data…overcome through evaluation and planning

“As a cryptography and computer security expert, I have never understood the current fuss about the open source software movement. In the cryptography world, we consider open source necessary for good security; we have for decades. Public security is always more secure than proprietary security. It's true for cryptographic algorithms, security protocols, and security source code. For us, open source isn't just a business model; it's smart engineering practice.” Brian Schneier, 9/15/99 Crypto-Gram Newsletter

Pros of using Open Source

From “Pros and Cons of Open Source Solutions” by Liz Azyan (4/23/12)http://opengov.zaizi.com/pros-and-cons-of-open-source-solutions/

Lower cost; less likely to have contractually-bound upgrade costs

Greater opportunities to share data across platforms

Increased opportunities for re-use

Collaborative design makes user-facing open source products intuitive

Potential for fast cycle time of releases and bug fixes

Opportunities for customization and community innovation within government and the wider public sector and citizens

Open Source solutions are scalable in both directions

Cons of Open Source Solutions

From “Pros and Cons of Open Source Solutions” by Liz Azyan (4/23/12)http://opengov.zaizi.com/pros-and-cons-of-open-source-solutions/

Wider availability of source code increases vulnerability

Must assess support & maintenance costs versus proprietary package

Potential legal risks around whether code retains its open source status & who owns IP rights of modified code

Those considering using & developing open source ‘in-house’ must ensure that they have the right level of expertise to manage it

Open source solutions may require additional development to enable

integration with existing proprietary environment

Re-training of staff using the software

Examples of Successful Open Source Projects in Government

• US Navy nuclear submarine fleet• Steamboat Springs, Colorado• City of Newport News, Virginia• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

– Started from scratch– Not legacy– Processed and planned

• 50 Places Linux running you might not expect– Pakistan, Cuba, Macedonia– New York Stock Exchange (okay not government

but still worth noting!)

ARE WE THERE YET?

License expiring?

New project?

Don’t rip out what’s working

Deborah Bryant, who, among many other engagements, is involved with the Boards of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Civic Commons, DemocracyLab.org, and the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation, suggests that opportunity may be around the corner if:

Places to start…

Create an open source software policy:•Public •Operational

Create a sandbox:Pick a projectGet feet wetDetermine where support will come fromVirtual Sandbox: http://virtual-sandbox.winsite.com/

New Hampshire Law Promotes Open Source SoftwareBest Practices for Creating an Open Source PolicyThree Steps to Jumpstart Your Open Source PolicyOpen Source Usage Policies

Resources to Find Open Source Projects and Examples• Virtual Sandbox: http://virtual-sandbox.winsite.com/• Open Source Initiative: http://opensource.org• Open Source for America: http://opensourceforamerica.org• GovLoop-Open Source Software in Government: http://www.govloop.com/group/OSSinGov• OSCON: http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012• GOSCON: http://goscon.org/• sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/

• VIDEO: Open Source Trends in Government: How is it being used? http://www.posscon.org/presentation/open-source-trends-government-used/

• VIDEO: Open Source is Making a Difference in Health Information Technology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYbpCS394Q

• Steamboat Springs Q&A on going open source: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/application-development/2006/02/20/linux-taken-for-a-ride-in-the-old-west-39253443/

• “How Linux Mastered Wall Street:” http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/238068/how_linux_mastered_wall_street.html

• Using Free, Open-Source Software in Local Governments: Streamlined Internal Computing for Better Performance and Record Keeping: http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/301522/Using_Free_OpenSource_Software_in_Local_Governments_Streamlined_Internal_Computing_for_Better_Perfor

• Why Big Sites Run Drupal: http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Why-Big-Sites-Run-Drupal.html?page=1

• POSSCON: Open Source Trends for Government 2011: http://issuu.com/posscon/docs/possconbryant

IT Sharing Initiatives in Ohio

The Civic Commons and EfficientGovNetwork

Jquery: open source javascript library. http://jquery.com/

Solr: search engine, is an apache open source search server. http://lucene.apache.org/solr/

MySQL: database

Nginx: http server

Git: free and open source distributed version control system

Ruby on Rails: open source web application framework PLUS all of Ruby’s Gems (200+)

IT Sharing Initiatives in Ohio

The Civic Commons and EfficientGovNetwork

Local Government Innovation Fund Applicants:

Sourcing Office: Butler County; Summit County•Grant for two county entities and five communities; will test the feasibility of a new collaborative budgeting strategy which will provide a fuller reporting of public spending on economic and community development •Eleven public sector entities in Summit County submitted a grant application to support a feasibility and cost benchmarking study to create a shared broadband infrastructure that will serve public, not-for-profit, and private sector entities. The communities are: County of Summit, Bath Township, Copley Township, the Village of Mogadore, Akron General Health System, the University of Akron, and the cities of Fairlawn, Hudson, Stow, Tallmadge, and Twinsburg.

ACCESS: Mahoning & Columbiana CountiesA group comprised of 10 cities and towns and a handful of county representatives met on Friday, Feb. 17, to gauge interest in jointly using the same Internet and email services to save money and be more efficient. The Area Cooperative Computerized Educational Support System (ACCESS) currently provides those services and other technology to schools and is exploring how it could do the same for municipalities.

Questions?Comments?Concerns?

Thank you

Jeff Mowry, CIO, Cuyahoga Government ITOCITA

Josh Schram & Mike Dobida, Stone Crossing Solutions

Deborah Bryant, Open Source Initiative

Jill Miller ZimonThe Civic Commons EfficientGovNetwork

http://theciviccommons.com/egnjillmzimon@theciviccommons.com