Dear Eric,
thanks for your interest in the Med-e-Tel Open Source Village and
congratulations to the upcoming FreeMedForms and FreeDiams 1.0 release!
The organizers of the Med-e-Tel are not able to provide
free-registration for representatives of non-profit, community driven
open source projects. Why? I am not sure about but I suppose the reasons
can be found mainly in the 'academic' type of conference ... like
organizational efforts, review process of 'academic' submissions,
printed and published proceedings, invited speakers, expected free food,
etc. that all need to be covered ... and the idea to equally treat its
participants.
Generally speaking at least in the field of Free/Libre and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) for health care we have quite a problem to bring
together the provider/vendor and customer ... if we use these words also
in a non-commercial context.
So a bit (maybe too) simplified: On one hand the potential FLOSS users
("customers") like doctors, health IT admins and researchers are mainly
attending 'academic' conferences to catch up with the 'State of the Art'
and to disseminate their own work. Further more they are expected to
have publications and to do networking within their society. Both mean
reputation, a measure to receive further funding and an not-to-miss
opportunity to find partners for future research projects. The FLOSS
developers/community members ("providers/vendors") are hindered to
participate due to the typical high registration fees.
On the other hand "providers/vendors" - an let's just consider the
non-paid voluntary ones - are due to their lack of budget only able to
primarily attend unconferences to present their work and exchange ideas
and experiences. The "customers" are hindered to participate as their
institutions will not cover their travel expenses and provide time-off
(as reason one could hear "...missing 'citable' proceedings", "...no
real ROI for our institute") and IMHO they might also not be willing to
take it from their own pocket / holiday account as they still consider
it as business activity for their work.
The Med-e-Tel Open Source village is in your words still a "small step
for man" but one in the right direction. The Med-e-Tel organizers kindly
provided space incl. poster boards that can be offered to FLOSS NPOs,
community projects and developers at no cost in order to present their
efforts to potential "customers". Thomas, Etienne and me will be at the
village and voluntarily try our best to represent also projects that
have not been able to send their own representatives due to the
registration fees. The only thing NPO/community projects have to do is
to send in a poster (if you want additional flyers, stickers, ...) about
their project as described in the invitation for participation. So
beside companies advertising their products in the central expo area, we
hope that we can attract a lot of attention also to outstanding - even
better ;-) - FLOSS projects and our common principles we share.
Best regards,
Holger
On 01/19/2013 01:39 AM, Eric Maeker wrote:
Dear Holger,
Dear Debian Med members,
Dear Med-e-Tel organizers,
Thanks for this information.
I would be very interested to participate in the Med-e-Tel. I think that FreeMedForms and FreeDiams
are in a pre-1.0 release [1]. They are both reaching a strong stability and a good "first
basic feature set". And as you know, they are both multi-lingual (which is rare for EMR). I'm
planning the last 0.x release in few weeks. I hope to have enough time to include a "pregnancy
checking" in the drug engine based on the tga data [3].
Unfortunately, registration fees and travel represent a heavy budget for a
small non-profit organization. Some people of the FreeMedForms community have
created a french non-profit association to support the suite [3]. But the fund
raising is not yet started.
I'm wondering if the organizers of Med-e-Tel could accept the principle of free-registration for
representatives of non-profit, community driven, open source project? This kind of engagement can
be a very strong message for open source providers. One kind of "giant leap for mankind"
and not only "small steps for a man".
Eric, freemedforms.com
[1]: http://freemedforms.com
[2]: http://www.tga.gov.au/
[3]: http://asso.freemedforms.com
Le 18 janv. 2013 à 21:59, Holger Schmuhl a écrit :
Dear packaging teams, developers and project communities,
this years Med-e-Tel, International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum,
comes again with a special feature dedicated to Open Source and Free Software
in the domains of medical informatics and health care. Software projects,
communities, NPOs and companies are invited to present their work within the
“Open Source Village” that will be hosted right in the central expo area of the
conference.
If you are interested to present and/or participate, please take a look at the
details:
Open Source Village @ Med-e-Tel 2013
- Date: 10-12 April 2013
- Deadline for submissions: 22 February 2013
- Venue: LUXEXPO S.A., 10 circuit de la Foire Internationale, L-1347 Luxembourg
- Details:
http://www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=educational_program&page=benefits_of_open_source_software_in_health_care_2013
- Contact: [email protected]
It is co-organized by ISfTeH Collaborative Care Team in Open Source Working
Group, IMIA Open Source Working Group and EFMI LIFOSS Working Group.
We are looking forward to your involvement!
Best regards,
Holger Schmuhl
Vice-chair IMIA Open Source Working Group
Coordinator Medfloss.org
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