Re: Open Source companies with offices in San Francisco?

On Fri, Jul 25, 2003 at 07:00:53PM -0700, Brian Behlendorf wrote:
> I'll be using the Largo and Munich examples, but if someone knows of other
> good municipal examples (especially if you're aware of any cross-municipal
> projects, e.g. an open source project for software used by food banks or
> libraries or schools) that would be deeply appreciated.  It's a short
> meeting so we don't need overwhelming evidence, just enough to know they
> aren't the only ones who'd be giving this a try.

It's not a municipal example, but Jim Willis is the Director of
eGovernment for the State of Rhode Island.  He's done a lot of work
converting Access/Filemaker databases to LAMP-based projects (PHP+MySQL 
mostly).  Not only has this reduced development and admin costs, but it 
increases data integrity and reduces ad hoc reuse.

Among Jim's projects were a site to provide access to rules and
regulations -- when new ones are filed, when they take effect, when
they are open for public comment, etc.  I believe there is an email
alert system available so you can be notified with news of new
regulations that impact your business.  This was small, underfunded
project done under the previous administration as a LAMP site that
used OSS quite heavily, and was completed early and under budget.
(The previous two attempts were axed after a series of budget
overruns and delays).

Z.