Gunnar Hellekson - Open Source: A Platform for Government Innovation

1. Open Source
A platform for government innovation.
Gunnar Hellekson
Chief Technology Strategist, Red Hat US Public Sector
gunnar.hellekson@redhat.com · +1 202 507 9027 · @ghelleks
24 January 2012

2. “When a private individual mediates an undertaking, however
directly connected it may be with the welfare of society, he
never thinks of soliciting the cooperation of the Government, but
he publishes his plan, offers to execute it himself, courts the
assistance of other individuals, and struggles manfully against
all obstacles. Undoubtedly he is often less successful that the
State might have been in his position; but in the end the sum of
these private undertakings far exceeds all that the
Government could have done.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

3. More Ideas
Good ideas comes from lots of good ideas.

4. “The Springfield Rifle cost $20 each at the
Springfield Armory where they were officially
made. Overwhelmed by the demand, the
armory opened its weapons patterns up to
twenty private contractors. The most notable
producer of contract Model 1861 Springfields
was Colt, who made several minor design
changes in their version, the "Colt Special"
rifled musket. These changes included
redesigned barrel bands, a new hammer, and a
redesigned bolster. Several of these changes
were eventually adopted by the Ordnance
Department and incorporated into the model
1863 rifled musket."
— "Springfield Model 1861"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Model_1861

5. “If the DoD can’t figure out a way to defend
the United States on a budget of more
than half a trillion dollars a year, then our
problems are much bigger than anything
that can be cured by buying a few more
ships and planes.”
Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense

6. “Big Bang” IT
Effectiveness
100%
50-80%
<= 0%
http://david.upton.com/opensource

7. “The days of proprietary technology must
come to an end. We will no longer accept
systems that couple hardware, software
and data.”
Vice Admiral Mark Edwards
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations

8. Shift to a “Cloud First” Policy
Each Agency will identify three “must move” services. They must move one to
the cloud within 12 months, and the rest within 18 months.
Consolidate IT spending under Agency CIO's
Agencies and programs currently design, build, and operate independent
systems. The minor differences between agency-specific systems and their
associated operational processes do not drive value for the agencies.
Shift to a “Shared First” Policy
Each Agency will identify two business services that can be shared amongst
departments or other agencies.

9. From Section 804 of the 2010 Defense Authorization...
(a) New Acquisition Process Required.--The Secretary of Defense shall develop and implement a
new acquisition process for information technology systems. The acquisition process developed and
implemented pursuant to this subsection shall, to the extent determined appropriate by the Secretary--
(1) be based on the recommendations in chapter 6 of the March 2009 report of the Defense Science
Board Task Force on Department of Defense Policies and Procedures for the Acquisition of
Information Technology; and
(2) be designed to include--
(A) early and continual involvement of the user;
(B) multiple, rapidly executed increments or
releases of capability;
(C) early, successive prototyping to support
an evolutionary approach; and
(D) a modular, open-systems approach.

10. More Standardization.
We can no longer afford to build the same system from scratch
for every agency or branch. 50 systems for 50 states and 93
FOIA systems for 93 agencies is untenable.
More Collaboration.
To gain that standardization, we need a way of working together
to drive out redundancy and find new opportunities for sharing
the burden.
More Opex, less Capex.
Too much of the IT budget goes to capital spending. Instead of
buying more boxes, we need a more agile approach.

15. myBenefits.ny.gov
New York State's Office of Temporary Disability Assistance saved
weeks and thousands of dollars on application changes
moving business logic to the JBoss Rules platform.
Since the business logic is now easily shared, OTDA is able to
collaborate with five other states on the 80% of the Federally-
mandated rules they have in common. This further reduces the cost
and time needed to keep their business rules current.
“We took all the underlying technology and
converted it into open-source technology...
If you look at some of these federal
programs, the rules are very similar from
state to state, a portion are almost identical
– so why do we need to reinvent these
systems so many times?”
Dr. Daniel Chan, NYS CIO

16. OpenTripPlanner
Portland, Oregon's Trimet needed a trip planning application for
riders that could handle train, bus, and bicycles. Ahead of
schedule by 6 months and at one-third the cost of competing
proprietary systems that were less functional, they developed
OpenTripPlanner. The software is now used or in testing in New
York City, Valencia, Pune, Tampa, and a dozen other cities.
“We knew exactly how the work was
coming along, and we could see that hours
weren't inflated. That trust goes a long
way.”
Bibiana McHugh
IT Manager, Trimet

17. Whitehouse.gov
“Open source is...
the most concrete form
of civic participation.”
— Macon Phillips
White House New Media Director

18. Let citizen developers help you.

19. Deliver undifferentiated value at a lower cost.
AMQP
Encourage ubiquity.
SELinux
Drive modularity and interoperability.
Navy Real-time
Engage the public.
CivicCommons

22. YOU ARE HERE