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A colleague of mine is having some difficulties getting an Open Source solution to be made available within his government organization. In providing support to him, I've collected the below resources. Of particular interest is the 2007 Government Open Source Policies from the Center for Strategic and International Studies , listing the Open Source policies of hundreds of national, state/province/territory and local governments (including Canada's). 2009 The DoD and Open Source Software. Oracle White Paper 2009 Open source software could save millions (Scotland) 2009 Open Source Vendors welcome new UK Government policy, but want more action 2009 Liam Maxwell The High Cost of government IT 2009 Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies 2009 D.Gatto & J.Herzfeld. Department of Defense Debunks Myths and Endorses Use of Open Source Software 2008. The acquisition of (open-source) software A guide for ICT buyers in the public and semi-public sectors (Dut...

It was very interesting to recently discover this Hansard exchange from the UK parliament dated Nov 12 2009 involving Open Source and sharing data: House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 12 Nov 2009 Public Bodies: Databases Mr. Maude : To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what steps her Department is taking to facilitate data sharing among public sector bodies. [299480] Angela E. Smith : The Ministry of Justice is the lead Department on data sharing. The Cabinet Office supports technical elements of secure data handling and ensures that considerations of Data Sharing informs our work to promote more joined up public services. Sharing data securely is a requirement of the Data Handling Review, which all public bodies must adhere to. Public Sector: ICT Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment has been made of the levels of compliance with her Department's guidance on public sector open source software procurement; and what steps are being tak...

The report Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (A Report by the Digital Connections Council of the Committee for Economic Development Committee, 2009 ISBN #0-87186-184-7) has some very relevant sections dealing with Open Access and Open Data in the context of higher education and the research process: Chapter 5. Openness in Higher Education: Changes in Research a. Resistance to Greater Openness b. Openness and Open-Access Journals c. Digital Repositories d. Educating Faculty Members on Their Intellectual Property Rights e. Openness and Commercial Support of Research f. Access to Government-Funded Research Results g. Openness and University Libraries h. Openness and Academic Presses i. Openness and Technology Transfer Of particular interest to those who - perhaps at a more general level - are working on getting better access to government funded research , are the following recommendations on this particular issue: f. Access to Governme...

Today in Washington. D.C, the CODATA organized Symposium on the Data Sharing Plans and on the Scientific Benefits of Data Sharing in GEOSS was held. Among other things, it looked at the draft GEOSS data sharing plan: The Plan, now endorsed by 80 government Members and 56 Participating Organizations, highlights the following GEOSS Data Sharing Principles: There will be full and open exchange of data, metadata, and products shared within GEOSS, recognizing relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation. All shared data, metadata, and products will be made available with minimum time delay and at minimum cost. All shared data, metadata, and products being free of charge or no more than cost of reproduction will be encouraged for research and education. Programme: Part One: Implementing the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles How We Got There and Where We're Going . Beth Greenaway. UK Environmental Observation Network An Overview of the Key Substantive Provisions ...

Ravi Mohan has posted to his blog, Pin Dancing , a provocative (and likely correct) evaluation of the Agile/xtreme/lean programming wave we have seen over the last couple of years (" Let the Agile Fad Flow By " - Sept 26 2009). Enjoy.

The UK Research Information Network (RIN) and the British Library (BL) have produced an amazing report looking at the patterns of flow of data in its production and tranformation in the research process of life scientists. Patterns of information use and exchange: case studies of researchers in the life sciences . A report by the Research Information Network and the British Library November 2009. They have seven case studies that look at the data lifecycles of data for researchers in the following life science disciplines: Animal genetics and animal diseases Transgenesis in the chick and development of the chick embryo Epidemiology of zoonotic diseases Neuroscience Systems biology Regenerative medicine They have extended Chuck Humphrey 's data lifecycle model , and use this extended model to illustrate how the data lifecycles are expressed in these different disciplines: The diagrams (below) for the different disciplines are very revealing, and show the great deal...

For those who want to take a glimpse at where science and scientific discourse are going, take a look at some of the papers at this workshop: Workshop on Semantic Web Applications in Scientific Discourse , October 26, 2009, Proceedings ), part of The 8th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2009) Keynote: Enabling Semantic Publication and Integration of Scientific Information David Shotton. Presentation . A Short Survey of Discourse Representation Models Tudor Groza, Siegfried Handschuh, Tim Clark and Simon Buckingham Shum Paper Presentation Strategic Reading and Scientific Discourse Allen Renear and Carole Palmer Paper 'Confortation': about a new qualitative category for analyzing biomedical texts Delphine Battistelli, Antonietta Folino, Patricia Geretto, Ludivine Kuznik, Jean-Luc Minel and Florence Amardeilh Paper Presentation Hypotheses, Evidence and Relationships:The HypER Model of Representing Scientific Knowledge Anita de Waard, Simon Buckingham Shu...