StandardsBased eGovernment Procurement Systems

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Standards-Based eGovernment Procurement Systems
www.oasis-open.org
Opportunities and Priorities
Eduardo Talero
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Agenda

• Electronic Government Procurement (eGP)
• Why standards?
• Standards and eGP
• Standards/FOSS and agile system development
• MDBs can help
• Closing thoughts

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What is eGP?
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Logframe of eGP
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Why Standards for eGP?
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How Standards can help eGP

• Enhance B2G/G2G connectivity and interoperability
• Generate trust in electronic experience
• Enhance competition and inclusion
• Enhance efficiency and flexibility of public
  procurement function
• Enhance cooperation and transparency
• Facilitate evolution and innovation
• Increase return, reliability of investments
• Avoid vendor lock-in

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Privacy fears are not completely unreasonable
Personal information records compromised by
security breaches in the U.S. since January 2005
exceeds 255 million (www.privacyrights.org/ar/Chro
nDataBreaches.htm, accessed March 9, 2009.
Hacker clones a valid CA certificate from and
MD5-based SSL certificate using a Playstation 3.
( Technology Review, March/April 2009, pg. 86)
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Standards Categories most relevant to eGP
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DIFFERENT STANDARDS FOR DIFFERENT PHASES OF eGP
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Interoperability/Collaboration
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FACILITIES
Workflow
Web Services
TRANSACTION FACILITIES
Reliability
Security
ePayments
Registration
Identification
DISCLOSURE FACILITIES
Communication
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Use of Open Standards/Open Source by 14 leading
eGP governments

• 7 use proprietary development platforms. Other 7
  (6 in Asia) use J2EE
• Only 4 use Linux, 2 of them in EU
• Only 4 use Apache, the rest use proprietary web
  servers
• 7 use MySQL, most others Oracle.
• No one says to allow ODF documents.
• Only 6 use UNSPSC.
• Only 4 use XML, and only one uses ebXML for
  interoperable electronic business
• Only 4 use SOAP, 3 use UDDI, only 1 uses WSDL
  and none use BPEL, WS-Security, WSCI (so much for
  SOAs).
• Most use digital certificates and asymmetrical
  encription for authentication.

Argentina, Australia (State of New South Wales),
Brazil, Chile, Finland, Hong Kong, India (Indian
Railways), Italy, Mexico, Norway, Romania,
Singapore, South Korea, The Philippines
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Standards / FOSS and agile system development
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Short Timeline For E-governance System
Development deployment
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
Develop Detailed Project Proposal
10 months
Specify System and Hire Developers
Specify System and Hire Developers
Specify System and Hire Developers
Specify System and Hire Developers
Specify System and Hire Developers
Specify System and Hire Developers
10 months
Develop system and deploy pilot
Develop system and deploy pilot
Develop system and deploy pilot
Develop system and deploy pilot
Develop system and deploy pilot
Develop system and deploy pilot
14 months
14 months
14 months
Rollout System
Rollout System
Rollout System
Rollout System
7 months
Operate system with resident support
Operate system with resident support
6 months
6 months
Y3
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The Typical Resulting System Today
Limited Configurability
Limited Interoperability with other vendor systems
CORE OF SYSTEM IS A BLACK BOX
Effective monopoly pricing for new licenses
Vendor lock-in
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An agile system development strategy based on
open standards and open source
Proposed in essence by ICT Agency of Sri Lanka
(http//www.icta.lk)
I1
I2
I4
I3
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IMAGINE industrial-strength eGovernance systems
that are also easy to change, interoperable,
social, knowledge-oriented, community-driven
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MDBs can Help by

• Developing lending instruments and procurement
  procedures/documents for agile system development
  
• Leveling procurement playing field for Open
  source products. For example, of proprietary
  office suites with functionally equivalent open
  systems alternatives.
• Referencing good practice standards in
  guidelines, templates, model TOR, model
  specifications. Fex., ebXML, UMM, WSS, IMAP
• Recommending well established standards that are
  widely recognized and tested. Fex SOA, Uncitral
  model laws, ODF, UNSPSC, BPEL4WS
• Requiring standards only very selectively, when
  economy/efficiency of investments, products or
  services would otherwise be compromised. Fex
  XML, ISO 9000, ISO 14000 or equivalent QA
  standards.

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In Closing

• Standards enhance economy, efficiency,
  competition, transparency and evolution of eGP
• Free and Open source SW (FOSS) facilitates and
  accelerates use of open standards
• Open standards/FOSS facilitate fast, iterative
  development of eGovernance applications which now
  take too long and are very risk-prone.
• Governments cannot afford to build the organic,
  social applications of the future only with
  proprietary standards/technology.

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In (really) Closing

• MDBs can be far more proactive in referencing,
  recommending and sometimes even requiring
  Standards.
• MDBs need to create level playing field for
  procurement of FOSS and for contracting of agile
  application development.

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Thank youQuestions? etalero_at_worldbank.org
or eduardo_at_talero.name