GOSCON
Encyclopedia
GOSCON is a conference held annually to explore the use of open standard
and open-source software
in the public sector, mostly in the United states
.
GOSCON was conceived of at Oregon State University
's Open Source Lab
, and first held in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, GOSCON was held in Portland, Oregon
. In 2009, it was held in Washington, D.C.
at the Ronald Reagan Building
. In 2010 it was held in Portland, and in 2011 it will again be held in Washington, D.C. Deborah Bryant is the founder and director of the conference.
In GOSCON, academic and government IT managers from the local, state and national level discuss opportunities and challenges presented by the use of open-ource software — some of which are specific to public sector situations (such as the government procurement process) and some of which are shared by many IT departments (such as questions about the ongoing support of Open Source Software projects). Speakers have included open-source software project leaders such as Brian Behlendorf
, Larry Augustin
and Ward Cunningham
; government and university IT managers; academic researchers and corporate executives.
Past sessions have covered:
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
and open-source software
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
in the public sector, mostly in the United states
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
GOSCON was conceived of at Oregon State University
Oregon State University
Oregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
's Open Source Lab
Open Source Lab
The Open Source Lab is a group at Oregon State University dedicated to supporting and developing Open Source software. A wide range of projects are hosted at the lab including Gentoo, Mozilla, Debian, and freenode. Development projects include Ganeti Web Manager, Pydra, and Touchscreen...
, and first held in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, GOSCON was held in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. In 2009, it was held in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
at the Ronald Reagan Building
Ronald Reagan Building
The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, named after former United States President Ronald Reagan, is the first federal building in Washington, D.C. designed for both governmental and private sector purposes....
. In 2010 it was held in Portland, and in 2011 it will again be held in Washington, D.C. Deborah Bryant is the founder and director of the conference.
In GOSCON, academic and government IT managers from the local, state and national level discuss opportunities and challenges presented by the use of open-ource software — some of which are specific to public sector situations (such as the government procurement process) and some of which are shared by many IT departments (such as questions about the ongoing support of Open Source Software projects). Speakers have included open-source software project leaders such as Brian Behlendorf
Brian Behlendorf
Brian Behlendorf is a technologist, computer programmer, and an important figure in the open-source software movement. He was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software on the Internet, and a founding member of the Apache Group, which later became the Apache...
, Larry Augustin
Larry Augustin
Larry Augustin is CEO of SugarCRM and is a former venture capitalist and the co-founder and former chairman of VA Software, now known as Geeknet. He founded VA Research, the predecessor to that company, in 1993 while a Ph.D...
and Ward Cunningham
Ward Cunningham
Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham , on...
; government and university IT managers; academic researchers and corporate executives.
Past sessions have covered:
- The ROI of Open Source Software in government settings (2005)
- The "Community sourceCommunity sourceCommunity Source is a term that has different meanings based on context and the community where it is used.-Community Source as a Type of Open Source Community:...
" model (2005) - Best Open Source Software practices for state and local government agencies (2005)
- The impact of Open ICT infrastructure on economic development (2005)
- Open Source Software and public procurement policies (2006)
- Forming collaborations between government agencies (2006)
- The global view of Open Source Software and its use in governments (2006)
- Specific application topics including transportation, corrections, health & human services, etc.