Andy Mulholland and I worked together many moons ago at BICC Communications. Andy is now Global CTO of Cap Gemini. This post on Open Source Software makes interesting reading…
By Andy Mulholland, Global Chief Technology Officer Cap Gemini
We talk a lot about new technologies but less about some of the implications. Take the software provisioning model, yes it’s all about ‘as a service’, but go a little further into this. Yes, we are changing the provisioning of software, but that is because the purposes people want to use software for are also changing. It then follows that the development of software itself will also change.
Little more than three years ago open-source software (OSS) was being positioned as something not suitable for the mainstream IT market with a series of implied risk statements about its fitness for use at an enterprise level. The use of Linux as a low cost operating system was acceptable, as was the increasing use of the so called LAMP stack, standing for Linux OS, Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP, Perl or Python scripting languages, to support web-based activities. Today many of the major proprietary software vendors who were vehemently attacking OSS have moved to embrace it as part of their product portfolio and can be found making contributions.
In the USA the White House website has been shifted to OSS, in the UK the London Stock Exchange has adopted it for its high profile ultra reliable environment, and in Norway using proprietary software has become the exception with OSS the de facto approach.
G2010 Team Streams National Digital Inclusion Event
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Switch New Media – the Web Broadcast and Streaming team behind Government 2010 - is streaming the National Digital Inclusion Conference from London today.
If you would like to watch the stream just click here or on the image on the right. Registration is required.
William Heath to Chair “Beyond Open Data” Discussion
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William Heath with Martha Lane Fox
We’re delighted to announce that William Heath - who played such an important part in our last G2010 event – will be chairing a panel discussion focused on Beyond Open Data on April 22nd.
William is well known in government computing circles – having founded Kable, now part of the Guardian. He speaks widely on government data issues – with a particular focus on shifting control of personal data from the state to the individual.
We will announce the rest of William’s panel participants shortly.
Andrew Walkingshaw: Government Data and Context
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Andrew Walkingshaw leads sales, product marketing and business development operations for Timetric and will be presenting in the morning session at our Open Data and Open Source event on April 22nd.
Andrew will talk about government data as essential context; that there are businesses where the government data (or something derived directly from it) is the whole thing, but there are far more businesses where open data becomes one of many tools in decision-making or product development. (The distinction he draws here is between a business which makes maps and a business which makes products or services of which maps are only one part; there are far more of the latter…)
According to Andrew, “Government data is particularly interesting economically because it sets the playing field; it’s essential context for comparison or analysis with almost anything else. That’s the kind of thing I want to talk about – how free Government data magnifies the value of data around it.”
In the past Andrew was a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Chemical Laboratory. He, alongside Dan Wilson, designed markup languages and workflows to automate the computational prediction of materials properties. Whilst there, he was an invited delegate to an European Science Foundation working group on computational chemistry workflows, to Science Foo Camp, and to the 2008 Bloomsbury Conference on e-Publishing and e-Publications.
Jeremy Ruston on Open Source in Government Panel
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Jeremy Ruston (pictured left, photo: Doc Searls), BT’s Head of Open Source Innovation, will be taking part in our afternoon panel on Open Source software in government. The panel will be chaired by Matt Warman of the Telegraph.
Jeremy is the founder of Osmosoft and creator of TiddlyWiki, a popular open source wiki. He joined BT three years ago to lead its open source innovation activities, helping BT take advantage of the unique business opportunities offered by participation in open source communities.
G2010 Open Technology Venue Announced
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We are delighted to announce that the venue for our Open Technology event on April 22nd will be the Park Plaza Hotel at Westminster Bridge.
This brand new ultra-modern hotel is situated in London’s South Bank, within walking distance of the city’s most iconic attractions, including Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and the London Aquarium.
We have a very limited number of places available to attend the live broadcast and our delegate fees include unlimited tea, coffee, and filtered water throughout the day, pastries and cakes at breaks, fruit and juice at breaks, and a fabulous buffet lunch. Oh and you get to hear our expert speakers discuss open data related issues in the morning and open source trends in government in the afternoon.
Don’t miss the chance to attend on the day. Priced at just £95 + VAT for commercial delegates and £75 + VAT for government delegates this is a must-attend event. We expect huge demand so hurry! Book now.
Mark Logic, one of the sponsors of Government 2010, has been named to KMWorld’s “100 Companies that Matter” List for the sixth consecutive year.
The full list is available here…
MarkLogic Server has also been named 2010 CODiE Awards Finalist for “Best Database Management Solution” – see below…
Kenneth Cukier in Interview
By · CommentsThe February 27th edition of The Economist features a special report on Data, Data Everywhere.
The report author, Kenneth Cukier, features in this interview to discuss the data overload. Our next event focuses on how government is opening up data and how open platforms are increasingly being used to manage data.
Registration to Attend Now Open!
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We have now opened registration to attend the Government 2010 Open Technology Event in London on April 22nd, 2010. Our speaker line-up is shaping up and we’re expecting this to be a fabulous, ground-breaking event – just like our inaugural event in October last year.
As before the event will be streamed live, free of charge. But sometimes you just can’t beat being there in person. You can get to network with the speakers and other delegates.
We are delighted to announce that we have slashed our attendance fees for our next event to just £95 + VAT for commercial delegates and £75 + VAT for public sector/NGO and charity delegates. These fees include lunch and refreshments. But you better hurry because we have a very limited number of places available to attend the live broadcast.
Or if you’d prefer to just register to watch the web streamed event, click here.
Emma Mulqueeny to speak at G2010
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Emma Mulqueeny, on her own admission, has a “personal passion” to free up non-personal government data.
Here’s how she puts it…”Sir Tim Berners-Lee and many others have identified the value that can be generated through developers and other areas of government sharing and reusing data to create really useful applications, web tools and online information. This is frequently achieved with minimal technical cost, shaped by core civil service management skills in enabling access to information, and handling the consequent interest generated in services developed, and the uses to which they are put.”
Needless to say, therefore, Emma will be an interesting participant in our Open Technology event on April 22nd.
Emma provides support to UK government departments working on the delivery of their transformational government strategy and some of the power of information taskforce report recommendations.
Emma will be taking part in a discussion session chaired by Matt Warman of the Daily Telegraph.
