Top 10 Problems with GEDS

5 years after writing this blog post, most of the concerns I raised have been addressed. The URLs are still horrible, but GEDS is in a much more usable state now. OpenConcept works for several federal government departments and we often need to find contact information for government staff. For those of you who may not know the GEDS is the Government Electronic Directory Services and is the federal government's main public staff directory. It's also been a source of frustration for many so I thought I'd outline some of the things that something like this could do and how...

Drupal 7 Accessibility Podcast Transcript

I was listening to a podcast by AbilityNet in the UK the other day and liked what they were doing so I sent them a note on Twitter suggesting that their community might find the developments in Drupal interesting. I got into a conversation with them and ended up producing an MP3 with the following introduction to Drupal 7. After Drupal 7 is released we'll have to do a piece highlighting all the pieces that got in, but for now this is a good introduction. Looking at the right end of the problem The Internet is an increasingly important tool...

The AODA Customer Service Standard & Ontario's Public Sector Websites

A lot has changed since our initial posting about the AODA in 2009. For folks looking for general information (particularly pertaining to the web), I would suggest reading our more recent articles . If you're particularly interested in enforcement of this law I would suggest looking towards posts by Blakes(March 2011), Weirfoulds (July 2011) and FirstReference (August 2011). Ontario implemented the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in 2005 and in January 2010 it will begin to enhance the level of services that people in this province can expect from their governments. Organizations Needing to Comply The public sector...

Promoting Open Source Procurement in Government

The following article was prepared by OpenConcept for Summit Magazine , Canada's magazine for public service procurement. The full article is available within the PDF copy of the magazine . After publication I was sent this PDF about open source procurement in the Netherlands that was worth sharing. How Can Government Responsibly Procure Free Software? Free software is “free” in two senses: it is distributed free of charge, and can be freely used and shared because it is unencumbered by onerous and restrictive licenses. This software model has been refined over the past twenty-five years, and its use has become...

Ottawa Showcase of Drupal in Government

It was the first sunny day we've had in a week, a perfect day to spend on a patio after work drinking a pint. However 35 people made their way to The Code Factory to attend the Drupal in Government Showcase. This was the largest Drupal event ever held in Ottawa and it clearly demonstrated that there is interest in this Content Management System. Having organized the event we wanted to highlight the CLF 2.0 theme that are providing to the community as well as the extensive work that we have done on introducing accessibility enhancements to Drupal . NOTE:...

Open Data in Government

I've been thinking a lot recently about the accessibility of information that the government collects sometimes even distributes. We've blogged about problems getting information about postal code to riding data in the past. We ended up purchasing the data, but each time we do it is so inefficient it seems like it must cost the government more to sell it to me than give it away. Fortunately, there's been a lot of movement in this area around the world and there are a lot of good things to be inspired by. In the USA today the Obama administration launched Data.gov...

Presentations on Drupal, Accessibility, Wiki's & Open Source in Government

Last week was rather busy week for presentations involving Drupal. Most of them were associated with FOSSLC Summer Camp 2009 , which fortunately were being taped by the organizers. The only non-FOSSLC event was participating in a panel discussion organized by the Translation Bureau of Canada. Drupal Install Workshop The week's presentations began with Steve McCullough & I leading a Drupal installation workshop. This went quite well for most of the participants because we were starting with a MAMP or WAMP install of the environment and then adding Drupal on top of that. Ran into a couple odd problems by...

Open Source Adoption Inevitable for Canada's Government?

This is a reprint of the article originally published in OSBR's May Issue under the title The Feds are Ready for a Change "OSS is indeed the start of a fundamental change in the software infrastructure marketplace, but it is not a hype bubble that will burst and [the] UK government must take cognizance of that fact." Douglas Alexander Canada is at the tipping point for acceptance of open source. Open source software (OSS) and culture has reached a critical mass in the business world and it is also being actively deployed within the Canadian government. While open source has...

GhostNet & Creating a Culture of User Security

Quick update, OpenOffice now ships with macro security set for 'High' so that "Only signed macros from trusted sources are allowed to run. Unsigned macros are disabled". By going to Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice.org -> Security -> Macro Security You can also set the security level to 'Very High' so that "Only Macros from trusted file locations are allowed to run. All other macros, regardless whether signed or not, are disabled." So if you are concerned with these articles, use OpenOffice. Listening to CBC's Search Engine Podcast (which was removed by CBC sadly) I was reminded again of how...

Panel Discussion on the Value of Open Source in Government

I was fortunate to be invited to participate in a panel discussion organized by Andrew Ross of Ingress. The panel from left to right Roger Burkhardt ( Ingres ), Jean Bernatchez ( Enterprise Stewardship and Internal Services Strategies, Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board of Canada ), Dave McIlhagga ( DM Solutions ), me & Donald Smith ( Eclipse ): Business value of open source panel discussion from Andrew Ross on Vimeo . I had a hard time focusing on what I was going to say to some of the questions that were presented to the panel, because of the...