John Stuart Mill as Project Manager

But as a Secretary conducting political correspondence, I could not issue an order, or express an opinion, without satisfying various persons very unlike myself, that the thing was fit to be done. I was thus in a good position for finding out by practice the mode of putting a thought which gives it easiest admittance … Continue reading John Stuart Mill as Project Manager →

Scrooge McLingo

Lockheed Goes Open Source. Blankenhorn Hates It.

I was really pleased to read the announcement that Lockheed Martin's social networking platform, EurekaStreams, was released as an open source project today. Lockheed is a very conservative company, and while they're happy to use open source internally and on projects for their customers, this is their first experiment with actually running a project themselves. … Continue reading Lockheed Goes Open Source. Blankenhorn Hates It. →

Rough Guide to Gov 2.0 Expo: Open Source Edition

Gov 2.0 Expo is coming to Washington, DC next week. It's the latest offering from the O'Reilly event machine, which is unmatched in its ability to generate buzz and get everyone excited about topics that they've never heard of. I though I'd post the sessions that I plan to attend. You can subscribe to my … Continue reading Rough Guide to Gov 2.0 Expo: Open Source Edition →

Sunlight Week: accountability for earmarks

Earmarks are a notorious vehicle for pork, in part because they lay nestled inside opaque legislative prose. In the FY2010 budget, WashingtonWatch's crowdsourcing effort identified 40,000 separate earmarks -- about 75 for every elected official. There was a lot of talk about earmark prohibitions earlier this week, and each party swears it will be responsible … Continue reading Sunlight Week: accountability for earmarks →

Developers for Glory

Although it may be simple to conflate the Apps for Democracy and Apps for America contests with the exciting new Apps for Army contest, they really couldn't be more different. Together they represent an exciting experiment in what it takes to pull communities together around a problem. Though they all offer cash prizes to the … Continue reading Developers for Glory →

Software isn’t a skyscraper

Michael Daconta at GCN has posted a brief call to arms for the software industry. Here's the gist: Although I am a believer in free markets and the benefits of competition, industry has a responsibility to work together on the foundational layers to build security, quality and reliability from the ground up to advance the … Continue reading Software isn’t a skyscraper →

DOD Information Assurance Policy Map

In case you needed more evidence that IA is a chaotic, arbitrary, and disorganized activity in the DOD, this map tries to impose order on the process. Lulz ensue. Driptray rightfully declares this mess a "glorious misuse of the portable document format." HT: The inimitable Mr. Carr

What you need to know about the 2009 DOD OSS Memo

In mid-October, the U.S. Department of Defense CIO released a memo on the use of open source software in the DOD. The Clarifying Guidance Regarding Open Source Software (OSS) was hailed as tremendous leap forward for open source software in the US Government. And indeed it is. At its heart, the memo is fairly simple. … Continue reading What you need to know about the 2009 DOD OSS Memo →

Open Courseware Runs Afoul the Free Market

Higher education is now almost absurdly expensive. In an effort to reduce the cost of developing and delivering educational material, there are a number of initiatives around open curricula right now. The idea is that content generated by the academic community can be made freely available so that professors and publishers don't have to reinvent … Continue reading Open Courseware Runs Afoul the Free Market →