Understanding the Potential for Open Government: Open Source Processes for E-Government

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Understanding the Potential for Open Government
Open Source Processes for
E-Government

• Walt Scacchi
• Institute for Software Research
• University of California, Irvine
• Wscacchi_at_uci.edu
• http//www.ics.uci.edu/wscacchi
• http//www.ics.uci.edu/wscacchi/Presentations/Ope
  nGovt

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Open Government?

• Free/open source software development encourages
  sharing, examination, reuse, modification, and
  redistribution
• E-Government encourages adoption of
  E-Commerce/E-Business in government agency
  operations, functions, business lines
• Open government embraces open source and
  E-government processes, practices, and communities

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Why Open Government?

• Help make government faster, better, cheaper
• Empower interested government employees,
  contractors, and interested citizens to offer
  help and capture their contributions
• Enable creation of public test-beds where
  existing/new government processes can be
  demonstrated, manipulated, and refined.

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Why Open Government?

• Make processes of government and democracy
  Web-enabled and computationally enactable
• Codify processes into high-level, user-friendly
  process models as their source code
• Avoid coding processes in conventional
  programming or scripting languages
• This makes them opaque to users, and difficult to
  improve, adapt, or learn

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Overview

• Open processes for system development, use, and
  evolutionary support
• Motivations for open source processes
• Government operations and business processes
• International Development applications
• Military and security applications
• Opportunities and conclusions

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Open source processes

• System development
• build and release, testing, review/inspection,
  configuration management, security certification,
  localization, porting, contribution, development
  Web site maintenance, etc.
• Deployment
• business process redesign, organizational
  transformation, system upgrade, user training,
  community development and support, etc.

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Open source processes

• Free/open source software does not embody the
  processes for how best to develop, deploy, use or
  sustain them
• Deploying free/open source software is often
  inefficient and sub-optimal
• Closed source software development, deployment,
  use and support is generally no different!
• Explicit open source processes could also help
  closed source systems.

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Open source process example

• Example of an open source process model of a
  proposal submission process, specified in a
  Process Markup Language, PML
• J. Noll and W. Scacchi, Specifying
  Process-Oriented Hypertext for Organizational
  Computing, Journal of Network and Computer
  Applications, 4(1)39-61, 2001.

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Complex motivations for open source processes

• Closed source processes opaque or tacit,
  difficult to improve, subject to patent
• Most enterprise processes are operational, not
  strategic.
• Continuous process improvement and organizational
  learning requires open access to the source
  code of operational processes

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Closed source process as strategic business assets

• Processes offering competitive advantage can be
  patented, denoting their value as strategic
  business assets
• But very few enterprise processes are source of
  competitive advantage
• Closed/tacit vs. administrative vs. open source
  enterprise processes

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A closed source business process example
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Closed vs. administrative vs. open source
processes

• Closed Amazon one-click e-purchase
• Patented processes inhibits their sharing, reuse,
  study, modification, and redistribution
• Administrative Java community process
• asserts property rights, responsibilities, and
  administrative authority
• legalistic or bureaucratic policy and
  procedures are narrative, not operational gt
  ambiguous interpretation and legal wrangling

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Java Community Process
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Administrative process example
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Continuous process improvement and organizational
learning

• CPI is easier when processes are open and
  computationally explicit
• OL can be supported just-in-time via
  process-directed intranets/extranets
• PDIs/PDEs enable just-in-time training, process
  prototyping, performance monitoring and
  measurement, dynamic repair of process execution
  breakdowns/failures, and more.
• see References for citations and details

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Government operations and business processes

• Example Procurement and acquisition
• Procurement purchasing MRO supplies
• Acquisition contracting for services
• Not simply a matter using electronic forms or
  extensible markup notations about them
• Reengineering enterprise processes is complex and
  requires processes transformation, integration,
  commitment, and training
• W. Scacchi, Redesigning Contracted Service
  Procurement for Internet-based Electronic
  Commerce A Case Study, Journal of Information
  Technology and Management, 2(3), 313-334, 2001.

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Government operations and business processes

• Federal Enterprise Architecture process domains
  are the prime candidates
• Financial management
• Human relations
• Monitoring benefits and public health
• Data and statistic development
• Criminal investigation
• Regulation and legislation development,
  deployment, and enforcement

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Open Govt for International Development
applications

• Promote free/open source enterprise software
  systems and processes
• http//www.gnuenterprise.org for enterprise
  resource management and E-business framework
• Many other office productivity, E-business, and
  E-commerce systems being developed and deployed
  as free/open source

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GNUe enterprise system architecture
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Open Govt for International Development
applications

• Free/open source systems and processes are
  comparatively easy to transfer and deploy into
  developing nations, once localized
• Free/open source systems and processes amenable
  to co-sourced, cost-shared, multi-lateral
  development

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Military and security applications

• Most of the military enterprise focuses on
  operational, logistical, and training processes
• Administrative processes are ponderous,
  procrustean, rather than agile, flexible
• Current legacy processes are compliance oriented,
  rather than improvement oriented

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DD(X) Overview
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DD(X) Acquisition Guidelines
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Acquisition Process-Directed Intranet
demonstration
More information available in J. Noll and W.
Scacchi, Specifying Process-Oriented Hypertext
for Organizational Computing, Journal of Network
and Computer Applications, 4(1)39-61, 2001. W.
Scacchi, Open Acquisition Combining Open Source
Software Development with System Acquisition,
technical report, July 2002.
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Military and security applications

• Homeland security will increasingly become focus
  of process improvement, streamlining and cost
  reduction.

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Open Govt Opportunities

• Establish OG Web portals and clearinghouse
• Create/share process toolkits, libraries,
  repositories
• Co-sourced development of OG processes
• amortize and share OG development costs
• Capture and codification of government process
  domain expertise
• Operational OG system and process demos
• OG prototypes
• Exportable processes for democratic government
  operations

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Conclusions

• Free/open source software systems for government
  represent a significant opportunity
• Seek high-level, user-friendly processes for
  government operations expressed as open source,
  computationally enactable processes
• Open government embraces and extends open source,
  while also moving towards flexible, agile
  democratic government operations

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References

• J. Noll and W. Scacchi, Supporting Software
  Development in Virtual Enterprises, Journal of
  Digital Information, 1(4), February 1999.
• J. Noll and W. Scacchi, Specifying
  Process-Oriented Hypertext for Organizational
  Computing, Journal of Network and Computer
  Applications, 4(1)39-61, 2001
• W. Scacchi, Redesigning Contracted Service
  Procurement for Internet-based Electronic
  Commerce A Case Study, Journal of Information
  Technology and Management, 2(3), 313-334, 2001.
• W. Scacchi, Open Acquisition Combining Open
  Source Software Development with System
  Acquisition, technical report, July 2002.
• W. Scacchi, Open EC/B A Case Study in Electronic
  Commerce and Open Source Software Development,
  technical report, July 2002.

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References

• W. Scacchi and P. Mi, Process Life Cycle
  Engineering A Knowledge Based Approach and
  Environment, Intern. Journal Intelligent Systems
  in Accounting, Finance, and Management, 6(1),
  83-107, 1997.
• W. Scacchi, Understanding the Social,
  Technological, and Policy Implications of Open
  Source Software Development position paper
  presented at the NSF Workshop on Open Source
  Software, January 2002 (revised August 2002).
• W. Scacchi, Understanding the Requirements for
  Developing Open Source Software Systems, IEE
  Proceedings--Software, 149(1), 24-39, February
  2002.

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Acknowledgements

• The research described in this report is
  supported by contracts/grants from
• National Science Foundation
• IIS-0083075, ITR-0205679, ITR-0205724 and
  Industry/University Research Cooperative for the
  CRITO Consortium
• Defense Acquisition University
• N487650-27803
• No endorsement implied.