OStatic

There is plenty of enthusiasm surrounding the idea of open source solutions in healthcare, but getting policies in place hasn't been easy. Open source advocate Fred Trotter was prepared to do battle when he met recently with representatives of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), but got a pleasant surprise instead. [Several] issues were brought up in the meeting, he writes, and CCHIT is listening to everyone.

Trotter went to the meeting loaded for bear. The FOSS community, to the degree that such a thing is possible, had authorized me to go nuclear on the issue before the meeting, he writes. I had been given assurance that the community has been so frustrated with dealing with CCHIT that if they did not work with us that if I started an alternative certification program that I would be backed up with the dollars and brains from the community needed to make an alternative certification go.

We talk a lot at OStatic about open source solutions in the classroom. In fact, just yesterday Kristin pointed to a recent article from the BBC discussing the strengths of open source software and the complexities associated with deploying it in an educational environment.

According to the BBC, Good teachers will always be looking to move forward but they are so busy that they are often conservative.

Datamation's Matt Hartley has a completely different take on why open source can't get a foothold in American classrooms, and he claims it's largely because teachers and school IT professionals are misinformation junkies.

Panels, presentations, and Birds of a Feather meetings are certainly the highlight of next month's Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE), but that's not the only thing happening during the event. The Demonstrating Open Source Health Care Solutions (DOHCS) conference will be co-located with SCALE and both will get underway on Friday, February 20, 2009.

InfoWorld's survey of IT professionals indicates that open-source usage will continue to grow in the coming years. Why, and what does this mean for open-source developers?