vendor lock-in

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Advocacy Groups Support EC Guide Against IT Vendor Lock-In

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission (EC) | June 26, 2013

European groups advocating public administration's use of free and open source software and open standards are welcoming the 'Guide for the procurement of standards-based ICT', published by the European Commission this week Tuesday. Read More »

An Open Source Vision

Geraint Lewis | Health Service Journal (HSJ) | April 12, 2012

A campaign is attempting to bring VistA, an open source IT system, to the NHS. Why should you consider it? Read More »

Being smart about open source: 5 practical tips for government use

C. Thomas Tyler | GCN | September 25, 2015

There is much written about the pros and cons of using open source software, generally with more emphasis on the pros. Open source evangelists have even convinced foreign governments (India and the United Kingdom, to name a few) to go so far as mandating the use of open source software. To make smart decisions, however, government agencies must carefully consider the project in question.  Here are five tips for making sure important questions are not overlooked.

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DoD Healthcare Exec Pushes $11 Billion IT Upgrade, But Unwittingly Reveals Why It Won’t Work

Loren B. Thompson | Lexington Institute | April 8, 2015

On March 25, the program executive overseeing a proposed modernization of the military healthcare records system testified before the Senate’s defense appropriations subcommittee. Christopher A. Miller urged committee members to support a costly upgrade to the way in which the healthcare records of military personnel and their dependents are stored and shared — which at a projected price-tag of $11 billion will be the biggest investment in an electronic health record system ever undertaken. If past experience with such IT projects is any indication it will end up costing a lot more, but that’s not the real problem. The real problem, as Miller unwittingly revealed in his testimony, is an acquisition strategy that can’t deliver what the department needs... Read More »

Getting Started With Pimcore: An Open Source Alternative For Product Information Management

Product information management (PIM) software enables sellers to consolidate product data into a centralized repository that acts as a single source of truth, minimizing errors and redundancies in product data. This, in turn, makes it easier to share high-quality, clear, and accurate product information across customer touchpoints, paving the way for rich, consistent, readily accessible content that's optimized for all the channels customers use, including websites, social platforms, marketplaces, apps, IoT devices, conversational interfaces, and even print catalogs and physical stores...For years, there have been proprietary products that address some of these needs, like Salsify for data management, Adobe Experience Manager, and SAP Commerce Cloud for experience management, but now there's an open source alternative called Pimcore. Read More »

Guest Blog: Don’t Confuse Open Source With Open Standards

Amy-jo Crowley | CBR | August 28, 2013

The European Commission has recently published guidelines which will make it easier for public authorities to switch to Open Standards. This move should be commended, but with a caveat. Open Standards do not equate to Open Source, and vendor lock-in is still a probability... Read More »

Health IT Innovation? Not Without Open Platforms

The issue here is closed platforms, which enable most EHR vendors to position themselves as the single source of innovation. They also create dependent customers and glacial progress in two parallel areas of innovation—evidence-based medicine and information technology.  No one company can keep up with the natural pace of advancement in either realm, let alone both. Read More »

India Adopts A Comprehensive Open Source Policy

The Government of India (GOI) has adopted a comprehensive and supportive open source policy. It builds on their earlier efforts to adopt open standards for procurement. As we've seen in other regions, the adoption of such policies often brings out concerns from some quarters who want to spread 'fear and doubt' about the policy. So, what are the facts about the policy, and how does it fit into India's broader economic development strategy? Read More »

Is an Open Source EMR (OpenEMR) the Right Choice for Medical Practices?

Being the lead developer of OpenEMR, the world’s most widely deployed open source electronic medical record (EMR) system, I field calls on a daily basis from people who want to implement it. As part of the due diligence to discover and deliver the best possible outcome for the client, we give them a set of different implementation options that they can consider. The options range from a basic OpenEMR implementation at their offices, to a far more advanced and feature-packed “cloud” solution called BlueEHS.

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Lessons From AWS Part II: Is Open Source Lock-In Better?

Gabriel Lowy | Tech-Tonics | June 15, 2013

In Part I, I drew comparisons between AWS and Walmart, and emphasized differentiation as the key component to compete with the 800-pound cloud gorilla.  For over a decade, I have held that open source is the antidote to vendor lock-in and dis-innovation.  In Part II, I maintain that advocacy, but with a caveat... Read More »

Meaningful Use Provides Hospital EHR Vendor Lock In

John Lynn | Hospital EMR & EHR | April 10, 2012

One of the unintended consequences of meaningful use is that it provides a real hospital EHR vendor lock in. Certainly hospital EHR vendors have a pretty significant lock in even without meaningful use. Read More »

Open Source Forms the Backbone of the Most Significant Projects

Organizations large and small are changing their approach to open source software (OSS). Increasingly, OSS is being viewed as more than just a development tool, but as a strategic asset. And the implications of this change are becoming clear... Read More »

Open Source Is Taking Over The Software World, Survey Says

Katherine Noyes | PCWorld | April 17, 2013

It's been only a few weeks since the Linux Foundation released its report that enterprise use of Linux continues to rise, but on Wednesday fresh data came out that suggests the same is true of open source software in general. Read More »

Open Source's Fortunes In Poland Could Be About To Change, Thanks To Education

Michiel van Blommestein | ZDNet | December 12, 2012

Open source has had a mixed reception in Poland's public sector, with some government agencies actively blocking efforts to increase uptake of the software. But the situation could be set for a reversal, after changes in the education sector. Read More »

Open to Suggestions: Can the National Programme for IT be Saved by Open Source Software?

Geraint Lewis | Nuttfield Trust | September 12, 2011

...perhaps the time has come for a radical re-think. One sweeping change might be to mandate the use of open-source software across the health service. Yes this would be disruptive in the short term, but it could promote inter-operability between different parts of the NHS because the open standards would be published openly.

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