From: "Tony Stanco" <Tony@FreeDevelopers.net> To: <lwn@lwn.net> Subject: Open Source Software for e-Government Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 15:11:20 -0500 Open Source Software for e-Government The Cyberspace Policy Institute of The George Washington University will have demonstrations of mature Open Source programs every month in conjunction with General Services Administration at NSF facilities. A Q&A session will follow the presentations. This month: March 19, Open Source at the Census Bureau Location: National Science Foundation, Stafford II Building, Room 555, 4121 Wilson Blvd., Ballston metro Time: 2-4 PM FREE, but please RSVP to stanco@seas.gwu.edu (Picture ID required for admission) Description: Open Source at the Census Bureau, Presenters: Lisa Wolfisch Nyman, Senior Internet Technology Architect, Census and Bureau and Rachel LaPorte Taylor, Senior Internet Technology Architect, Census Bureau and Overview of the Open Source Data Base Server, MySQL, Presenter: Marten Mickos,CEO, MySQL AB This talk will introduce several Open Source projects at Census.gov and FedStats.gov, used for both data collection and dissemination. Lessons learned from these projects can help advocates promote Open Source for building a solid technology infrastructure, allowing developers to concentrate on the less tractable aspects of web site development. Lisa Wolfisch Nyman has 10 years of experience designing and developing Internet-based services. As a Senior Internet Technology Architect on the Census Bureau's Internet Staff, she creates customer-friendly web sites, researches new technology, and advises on accessibility concerns. Ms. Nyman is a persistent advocate for accessible, user-centered design in delivering government services over the Web. Ms. Nyman began her career with the Census Bureau as a cartographer and was a contributing editor to GIS World Magazine. In addition to her activities at the Census Bureau, she is active in the Perl community as a member of DC PerlMongers and a participant in the Yet Another Society, a non-profit corporation that advocates the use of Open Source, sponsors annual conferences around the world, and supports Perl development efforts. Ms. Nyman also serves on the Board of Directors of DC Web Women, an educational and service organization for women in new media. Rachael LaPorte Taylor, Senior Internet Technology Architect, oversees application development, content management, and system administration for FedStats, the gateway to the U.S. Federal statistical system. In addition, Ms. Taylor has been a significant contributor in developing the Census Bureau's information architecture for rapid data dissemination through the use of the Internet. Ms. Taylor has received numerous awards, ranging from the Census Bureau's Bronze Medal and Director's Award for Innovation to the Hammer Award for FedStats development. Ms. Taylor has been a featured speaker at a variety of national and international conferences describing how the Census Bureau and FedStats has utilized open source solutions to develop dissemination strategies for public data. Marten Mickos will describe how open source software is changing the way software is procured and used. The changes are profound and positively affect total cost of ownership, integration challenges and overall durability of software. With examples from the MySQL world, Mickos will highlight how organizations are benefiting from open source and reducing the time from decision to deployment of new systems. Organizations such as Yahoo! NASA and the US Census Bureau serve as examples.