MHS has now decided to stop spinning folks into and out of the Acting CIO slot, and is in the process of hiring a permanent one, spokesman Austin Camacho told me. Read More »

There's a growing international movement afoot worldwide to open up government data and make something useful with it. Civic apps based upon open data are emerging that genuinely serve citizens in a beneficial ways that officials may have not been able to deliver, particularly without significant time or increased expense. Read More »

The lobbyists for U.S. health insurers surely have to be feeling a little uneasy knowing that thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who have been marching and protesting in Washington as well as New York and other cities might target them in the days ahead. Read More »

Until we have some reasonably certain boundaries on software patents, innovators will continue to face risks that they are unable to fully evaluate. Read More »

After half a year of campaigning, the city of Montréal formed a working group to evaluate the possibility of adopting an open data policy...In the meantime, Montreal Ouvert is happy to share some of the key lessons in mounting a successful citizens’ initiative for open data. Read More »

The biggest problem any open source company has is maintaining motivation. You don't just want money. You also want mindshare. The attention paid you, in the form of developer time, is a currency that grows both the project and the customer's devotion to it. At the same time, the benefits of open source flow most freely when you become more than a customer. Read More »

The NBN has being touted as a cure-all for eHealth across the nation but hospitals, medical schools and medical professionals show eHealth is fighting fit. Read More »

A recent report from Ernst & Young suggests that big pharma must shift from a product-centric business model to a customer-centric one to remain relevant. The report highlights how recent trends such as health reform, health IT, and rising consumer power are driving nontraditional companies into the pharma sector. Read More »

Earlier this year Kenya became Africa’s first country to digitise its information as part of a wide-scale open data initiative. Not only is the initiative enabling government accountability and transparency, but it’s yielding a secondary economy with a range of apps that are being created to help people access, manage and comment on government information. Read More »

A project in which I'm involved, in the middle of a time of change, recently received an enquiry from a member of its user community. The enquirer was pleased with the software, concerned about the changes and wanted to provide support to the project to ensure it continued and as an expression of gratitude. "Where should I make a donation to support the software?" Read More »