Linux Access in State and Local Government, Part VII

The previous segments of this Linux Access in State and Local Government series discussed government developers' desires to share applications with one another in the spirit of other open-source projects. For example, Richard Brice stated, "I have latched onto and am modeling all of my work after something more important than a single software platform: the culture of the Open Source community, the bazaar style of development and the willingness to cooperate and collaborate openly with others. Open source offers advantages that I just can't pass up".

This article discusses the need for and construction of a Web site where Richard's vision can become a reality. In it, we ask you to ponder the possibilities of enhanced security and savings to taxpayers in a world where state and local governments work together. You might ask yourself, what if fifty states and thousands of local governments didn't have to buy the same applications fifty times, a hundred times or perhaps thousands of times?

Richard Brice works for the Bridge and Structures Office of the Washington State Department of Transportation. Like many other open-source advocates, he looked forward to a time when a specialized portal, like School Forge, would emerge for government. Also like many open source advocates who couldn't find what they wanted, he built it himself. He calls his portal The Alternate Route Project.

Along these same lines, the Texas Department of Information Resources also built their own portal. You might find it interesting that Government Domain.com carries the description:

The Texas DIR's Standards Review and Recommendation Publication SRRPUB09-OSS states:

Although the Texas DIR has taken what Doc Searls calls the DIY-IT approach (do-it-yourself information technology), few other states have similar initiatives. Looking at city and county government units, resource constraints prevent them from creating inter-governmental portals. In Newport News, Virginia, the city government has reported attempting to interest other cities in the area to share software. Jeff Self reports that they have run into some resistance.

The Alternate Route Project became Richard Brice's do-it-yourself, open-source software portal. Richard writes:

In an article by Dan Orzech, he states, "With relatively few local governments in the US using Linux, one might expect those who are to be putting their heads together, sharing information among themselves and with others who might be considering using open-source software". As Dan discovered, the following state and local governments IT departments have not put their heads together, mostly because they did not know what one another was doing and didn't have a place to meet: