Tag: open source
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Feb 16, 2011
Open Source at the State Department: Loud, Timely, Not Your Parents’ State Department
This is an excerpted version of this blog, originally published by OpenSource.com . Last Friday, I was in Washington, D.C., for Tech@State’s Open Source Conference . Tech@State is an inspiring step by the State Department, connecting technologists to targeted goals of the U.S. diplomacy and development agenda via networking events as part of Secretary Clinton's 21 st Century Statecraft initiative . Tech@State connects leaders, innovators, government personnel, and others to work together on technology solutions to improve the education, health, and welfare of the world's population. To date it has held events on Haiti, Mobile Money, and Civil Society 2.0. It was my second visit to the United States Department of State. The first time I visited was to attend TED@State , a first-of-its-kind conference bringing great ideas from TEDTalks (this was pre TEDx ) to Washington. This time, like the last, I found it was loud; it was timely; and it was not your parents’ State Department. There seemed to be equal excitement on the part of the State Department staff, the organizers, the speakers, and the audience, all aware that this was a new kind of... Read More » -
Jan 6, 2010
Global Health and Open Source in Africa—Why Is It Important?
The term open source refers to software source materials or source codes made freely and openly available with permission to be redistributed, customized, repurposed and rebuilt, legally and most often without fees—as opposed to proprietary software where the codes are kept private, must be bought, and usually cannot be significantly modified by the user. Here’s a good definition from the Open Source Initiative http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd IntraHealth is an avid supporter of open source systems because we have found that they encourage collaboration, transparency and efficiency, while investing money into local capacity-building instead of software licenses. Open source allows for collaborative creativity as well as localized customization, and adaptation, while promoting independence and local enterprise. Even better, when significant contributions are made they can be shared openly and easily with others. According to independent market research , more than half of the world’s largest companies have implemented, are piloting, or are expanding their use of open source computing other studies put the number at 85% with continued... Read More »
