Open Source Innovators From Local Government Honored

Winners of the Government Open Source Conference’s Open Source in Government Awards were announced Thursday, Oct. 28, and includes strong representation from within state and local government.

York County, Va., webmaster Coleen D. Cason; Daniel Chan, CIO of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; and Newport News, Va., IT Director Andy Stein took home honors from the second annual awards, which were chosen from public nominations.

“The awards recognize government employees who have made significant accomplishments in the application of open source technology in support of their agency mission,” according to the conference, which concluded Wednesday in Portland, Ore.

The Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) is hosted by the Oregon State University Open Source Lab. The winners and accompanying narratives from GOSCON are as followed:

Most Resourceful Use of Open Source Software

Coleen D. Cason, webmaster, York County, Va., for YorkCounty.gov

“Ms. Cason receives this award in recognition of her successful conversion of the York County website to a standards-compliant, open source content management system-based portal. Coleen accomplished the transition to great accolades from her management and local citizens, with a staff of one — herself — no formal IT training and no additional budget resources.

Outstanding Deployment of Open Source Software

Daniel Chan, CIO, New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance

“Mr. Chan and his office receive this award in recognition of the successful use of a variety of open source software to create the myBenefits and myWorkspace applications. The applications provide citizens across the state with access to much needed social services benefits and workers with an efficient tool to manage cases.”

Best Intergovernmental Collaboration

Connect Open Source Software Project, Federal Health Architecture, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT Department of Health and Human Services  ConnectOpenSource.org

“With Connect, information can be shared securely via the Internet among doctor’s offices, federal agencies, state agencies, disability organizations, public health organizations, pharmacies and other health stakeholders. This enables information to follow patients anywhere in the United States, giving caregivers a complete health information picture. The collaboration that led to Connect’s development is unprecedented in the federal government. Connect was developed by more than 20 federal agencies working together through FHA, rather than each agency independently building their own health gateways. It has saved the government an estimated $200 million in development costs.”

Open Source Trailblazer

Andy Stein, Director of IT, Newport News, Va.

“Mr. Stein’s willingness to support other like-minded collaborators and his passion for open government earned him the first GOSCON Open Source Trailblazer award. In October 2008, he was named to the volunteer post of senior adviser to Aneesh Chopra, then-secretary of technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia on Open Collaboration. In May 2009, he was named on the Government Technology list of 2009 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers. He is also long-time GOSCON Conference Committee member. Mr. Stein has worked tirelessly for a decade to promote collaboration within government.  He threw his shoulder behind early open source efforts such as the Government Open Code Collaborative with Massachusetts and others in the federal Core.gov initiative, and with his staff, built and shared an entire e-government platform based on the open source Plone content management system.”