Linux Access in State and Local Government, Part VIII

eGovernment applications need to cost
less, allow for rapid development, provide a user-friendly
experience for constituents and offer enhanced security. Linux
provides everything eGovernment initiatives need. It also provides
a scalable savings opportunity for the People, which can run into
billions of dollars.Savings for the Agencies, Constituents and the
CountryIn recent surveys, we have discovered government agencies
spending tens of thousands of dollars to have someone build
relatively sparse public web sites. "Rhode Island put itself on the
cutting edge of hot-technology uptake last year when it became one
of the first state governments to get beyond traditional government
conservatism and implement open-source technology",
writes
Lisa Vaas in eWeek. "The gamble is
paying off: The bill for the state's rules and regulations database
came in at $40,000--only $6,000 of which was hardware costs and
took one consultant four months working only two days a week to
complete." But, as Neil Aggarwal of JAMM Consulting responded,
"that seems awfully high".In today's economy, state and local government agencies
should think in terms of cutting that cost by well over 50% if
using outside contractors. In many cases, a local agency with a
Linux developer could bring in such a project for the cost of
payroll in less than a month's time.Benefits to the Agency: Core
CompetenciesA writer recently posted a comment saying:I've been in systems and network administration
on various platforms and have more recently been promoting FLOSS
and Linux in various forums. The one thing I thought would help
[the] State of Calif. IT is a central site for collaboration and
sharing. More than anything, government entities need to build or
maintain core competencies, and this is one area they have failed
to effectively address.
Smaller governmental bodies (local boards and districts,
small cities and sparsely populated counties) could use systems,
programs and tools developed by the larger entities. And this form
of sharing could produce incredible savings.Benefits Beyond the Agency: Cost SavingsTechnology workers in government rarely consider broad public
sector issues, which are better left up to politicians. Still,
consider the implications of the use of standardized open-source
applications in state and local government. For example, each
county and parish in the US requires a register of deeds database
application. With 3,142 counties (of the 87,525 local governments)
in the 50 states, why should each of them have to write a separate
application? Proprietary applications for this task, at the
national average of $50,000, total $157.1 million. Keep in mind,
that figure represents only a single database application.As we look at different applications, we can begin to scrape
together system requirements. Most government applications need
databases. They manage records with similar information, such as
birth certificates, drivers' licenses, criminal records, jury
summons, trial dates, property tax records and so on. Let's look at
a few that may not seem as obvious to a casual observer:

• Accident Reporting
• Building Permits
• Business Licenses
• Clerk Bench Warrants
• Delinquent Tax
• Dispatch
• DMV Vehicle Tax Process
• Evidence Tracking System
• Jail Booking
• Landfill System
• Municipal Court
• Pawn Tickets
• Residential Exemption
• Road Inventory
• Utility Billing
• Vehicle Maintenance

From this thumbnail, we can see that managing records is the
common element of government processes. They easily fall under the
domain of a thin client or three-tier architecture. Linux works
well in this environment.As state and local governments begin to automate and/or
Web-enable business processes, we can begin to move decimal points
to the right of the $157.1 million amount listed above. Suddenly,
the costs start moving into the billions of dollars. Shouldn't
taxpayers know and understand the savings available by using Linux
and open-source Software?LAMP Provides Big Savings OpportunitiesLAMP can use the open-source MySQL relational database, which
is quite popular both inside and outside the Open Source community.
MySQL facilitates LAMP's acceptance in government development
circles, because MySQL runs on several platforms, including Linux,
OS X and the one from Redmond.In development of government applications, the use of Perl,
PHP and Python for server-side scripting usually depends on
departmental resources. For example, many Web developers have used
Perl with Apache for years. Human resource recruiters can find an
abundance of programmers with Perl experience.PHP works well for creating dynamic web pages, similar to
Active Server Pages (ASP). Developers also find similarities
between PHP and Macromedia's Cold Fusion. Win32-trained developers
can make the leap to PHP easily, as it adds tags to Web pages to
control how applications execute functions and how content is
displayed.Advantages of LAMPEven though the US Census Bureau uses LAMP, most developers
would not refer to LAMP-based systems as enterprise application
servers that can deliver large-scale services over multiple
locations. Still, the beauty of LAMP lies in its ability to allow
developers to take advantage of well-known Web application
techniques.LAMP allows us to forget about reinventing the wheel. Its
commonplace existence means open-source Web applications can
install and run with minimal configuration. Such applications often
require only a few steps, such as creating database tables and
passwords. LAMP applications also allow configuration and
management through Web browsers.eGovernment ApplicationsMost people think of eGovernment as moving from desktops and
closed systems to thin clients and web service technology. We see
eGovernment as providing information to citizens over the Web. An
example of such a site can be found in the
Bureau of the
Census. The State and County QuickFacts Web site at the
Bureau of the Census runs servers with Apache 1.3.27, Red Hat
Linux, mod_ssl/2.8.12, OpenSSL 0.9.6b, PHP 4.1.2 and mod_perl/1.26.
Netcraft reports the site has seven servers. Journalists further
report that the system runs with MySQL.At the state and local level, an eGovernment Web site such as
the Hamilton County
Register of Deeds provides an example of how to digitize
and manage a database of complex property records. A register of
deeds system might manage 200 to 300 fields of data, while the
census bureau manages fewer fields but massive amounts of data.
Both systems must provide instantaneous document retrieval for many
simultaneous connections while interfacing with users in the
simplest way.By using a three-tier architecture model, all processing of
the business logic remains at the server level. This allows robust
PC servers to handle logic while slower desktops display the
output. The heavy processing occurs on more powerful machines while
client machines display the output. This may seem like a full
circle return to the days of mainframes and terminals. Fortunately,
desktop machines still have independent power to handle local
applications and human interfaces and to connect to a variety of
servers on the Internet.Below are some live LAMP servers working in
government:Hamilton County
Register of Deeds, built with Linux, Apache/1.3.12 and
PHP/4.0.4pl1.State of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Rules and Regulations
Database, running with Linux Apache 1.3.27, Red-Hat/Linux,
mod_ssl/2.8.12, OpenSSL0.9.6, DAV/1.0.2, PHP4.3.1 and mod_perl
1.24_01.Dublin County Register of
Deeds, using Apache/1.3.20, Sun Cobalt, PHP/4.0.4 and
mod_auth_pam_external.State and
County QuickFacts US Census Bureau, running seven servers
with Apache/1.3.27, Red Hat Linux, mod_ssl/2.8.12, OpenSSL 0.9.6b,
PHP 4.1.2 and mod_perl/1.26.Tarrant County Tax Appraisal District Database
DesignBecause we participate in the Open Source community, finding
information on the Internet becomes invaluable when we develop
eGovernment applications. The Tarrant County Tax Appraisal District
provides users with a plethora of information about its database
that can be extremely useful for building a LAMP
application.Having a database schema and information from the county seat
of Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, provides us with a large and
expertly designed database to study. You quickly can visualize a
database you might build it kind. The pages give you a sense of the
realness of how open-source software and the community
works.The Tarrant County Tax Appraisal District's web site provides
its constituents with an area where they can load a local database
with the information available over the Web. This allows the users
to speed up their processing and helps lower the load on the Web
services system.
Tarrant
Appraisal District provides files with which we can see a
data model for a county's eGovernment database.PHP and MySQLMySQL provides for a number of programming interfaces,
including Perl, PHP, Python, C, C++, JSP and ODBC. Interfaces or
APIs allow one to build applications that communicate with MySQL.
For the purposes of our discussion on LAMP eGovernment
applications, we chose PHP as our interface.PHP developers have written a range of sophisticated
functions for interfacing with MySQL. You can find and review these
functions by clicking on
link.
The general documentation for PHP exists at the PHP documentation
site, with links to additional PHP protocols.For a fast look at how well PHP works with MySQL and Apache,
grab the phpWebSite content management system from
Appalachian State
University. phpWebSite provides a complete Web site content
management system. You will find a Web-based administration system,
which allows for intuitive maintenance of interactive and
community-driven Web sites.Like most community-based development projects, phpWebSite
has a growing number of modules that allow for user-friendly site
customization. The project allows development of Web sites without
the need for unwanted or unused features. Additionally, the
development group uses valid XHTML 1.0 output and meets the W3C's
Web Accessibility Initiative requirements.Learning PHPThe documentation team at the PHP Web site has written a
high-quality
tutorial. Anyone at
all interested in Web services and programming should take a few
minutes to write a simple PHP web page.You can find an excellent resource for setting up a LAMP
environment at the Linux Documentation Project. The
Installing
a LAMP System Guide by Sascha Blum takes a contemporary
approach and uses a combination of RPMs and source code. Sascha
speaks German and the original guide updates remain in German. We
linked to a translation done in English.Tom Adelstein works as a
Linux consultant in Dallas, Texas. His current interest lies in the
field of Web services, security and supporting Linux deployments.
Tom is involved in the launch of
Government Forge, a
Web site devoted to state and local governments interested in Linux
and open source.

email: tadelste@ipal.org