Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON), Oregon State University and the World Bank’s e-Development Thematic Group have partnered to deliver a live webcast of a joint videoconferenced Global Dialogue workshop on the role of open source software in government transformation. Participants are joining via videoconference in the following cities: Portland, Washington DC, Moscow, Colombo, Dakar, Accra, Kigali and Brasilia.

Government transformation and information and communication technology dignitaries from around the world convened in person and via video conference for a Global Dialogue on “The Impact of Open Source Software on Transforming Government”. The discussion included 6 countries on five continents, presenting a range of initiatives, opportunities and experience on a range topics which are of critical importance to governments everywhere. This executive panel represented an outstanding global, non-technical view of the impact of Open Source Software based on their direct experience. The workshop explored both the business case and real-world applications for open technology to deliver the next generation of government services.

Speakers included:

• Timothy Ney, Co-founder, Linux Greenhouse (keynote)
• Samia Melhem, Chair, e-Development TG, World Bank (Co-Chair)
• Andy Stein, Director IT, City of Newport News (Co-Chair)
• Carlos Machado, Free Software Implementation Committee (CISL, Brazil)
• Marcos Vinicius Ferreira Mazoni, SERPRO’s Director-President (Brazil)
• Yuri Hohlov, Chairman, Institute for Information Society (Russia)
• Gerhard Pohl, Senior Director, Development Gateway Foundation
• Shahani Weerawarana, former CTO, ICTA (Sri Lanka)
• Mel McIntyre, Non-Executive Director, OpenForum Europe 
• Xavier Heymans, CEO, Zea Partners (Spain)

IIS organized the Russian part of the seminar. Its main thesis was the discussion of existing initiatives and projects on open software use by public authorities, education, transport and other sectors. Representatives of the leading Russian companies working on development of specialized information systems for different subject areas participated in the event.

Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of IIS Board of Directors, opened the program by a report on “The Role and Place of Open Software in Public Sector”. Yuri Hramov from K-Technology CJSC reported on open software use in standard solution “Regional Information System of the Transport Complex”.

The following questions will be addressed among others:

1. What should be the public policy on open source in government, especially in developing countries, if any?

2. What could be the institutional mechanisms for supporting open source implementation in government? 

3. What are the best examples of open source applications that are worth sharing and replicating everywhere?

4. How to develop local skills for open source implementations?

5. What are the existing and potential mechanisms for sharing open source applications internationally?

6. What has been impact so far in using open source applications for transforming government? Where are the greatest opportunities and potential impact in the future?

Please share a comment! If you would like to share your opinion please do so at the e-Development blog at www.edevelopmentblog.org

Questions for the panelists? Email at: edevelopment@worldbank.org 

Workshop agenda

Slides (hosted by GoogleDocs):

Timothy Ney, Co-founder, Linux Greenhouse 

Shahani Weerawarana, former CTO, ICTA (Sri Lanka)

Xavier Heymans, CEO, Zea Partners (Spain)

Transcript of Videoconference Greeting 

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