Comments on: Flavours of Government IT project http://www.humanitarian.info/2008/08/15/flavours-of-government-it-project/ because information can save lives Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:37:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Mikel Maron http://www.humanitarian.info/2008/08/15/flavours-of-government-it-project/comment-page-1/#comment-217048 Mikel Maron Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:34:34 +0000 http://www.humanitarian.info/?p=303#comment-217048 Open Source should also be on the radar of these type of projects. The work that goes into one Govt, UN, or NGO project can be reused and made better over time through cooperation in the open. You could almost say it's part of the mandate of a public serving organization. Not that open source is a magic bullet, and if an existing proprietary or web based system is judged to serve needs better, great. Then, the pressure should be on to support open standards and lightweight formats, as in the every day working practices of the web (and the web is working out pretty well). A number of times, I've heard consultants and representatives of big software companies (you know who they are) spreading fear uncertainty and doubt about open source. This type of commercially beneficial rhetoric has no place when software is being developed for humanitarian needs. Open Source should also be on the radar of these type of projects. The work that goes into one Govt, UN, or NGO project can be reused and made better over time through cooperation in the open. You could almost say it’s part of the mandate of a public serving organization.

Not that open source is a magic bullet, and if an existing proprietary or web based system is judged to serve needs better, great. Then, the pressure should be on to support open standards and lightweight formats, as in the every day working practices of the web (and the web is working out pretty well).

A number of times, I’ve heard consultants and representatives of big software companies (you know who they are) spreading fear uncertainty and doubt about open source. This type of commercially beneficial rhetoric has no place when software is being developed for humanitarian needs.

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