David, The referenced article only seems to talk about the front end "UX". The CTO of HHS didn't even mention the back end (done by CGI Federal). Probably slipped his mind :-)
The entire system reported cost over 600 million USD (so far). I would bet that I could put together a team of IBM-MAINers and build a system that works just as well for half as much ;-) Kirk Wolf Dovetailed Technologies http://dovetail.com On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 7:58 PM, David Crayford <[email protected]> wrote: > On 15/10/2013 4:21 AM, Kirk Wolf wrote: > >> How great to finally have government information systems built by >> hipsters.... >> > > Hardly hipsters. The project was outsourced to CGI Federal :). There are > certainly parallels here with gov.uk, but gov.uk has been a resounding > success. > It's a bit like one of those UK TV shows like Fawlty Towers that gets > remade in the US and fails miserably. However, gov.uk, like most sensible > startups, > had the good sense to use the elastic cloud. Once you know how much > capacity you need you can always bring it back in house. > > It's so bad even the github repo page 404s. > > > >> http://www.theatlantic.com/**technology/archive/2013/06/** >> healthcaregov-code-developed-**by-the-people-and-for-the-** >> people-released-back-to-the-**people/277295/<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/healthcaregov-code-developed-by-the-people-and-for-the-people-released-back-to-the-people/277295/> >> >> >> A great quote from the article: >> >> Jekyll, for those who are unfamiliar with web-development trends, is a way >> for developers to build a static website from dynamic components. Instead >> of running a traditional website with a relational database and >> server-side >> code, using Jekyll enables programmers to create content like they create >> code. The end result of this approach is a site that loads faster for >> users, a crucial performance issue, particularly on mobile devices. >> "Instead of [running] farms of application servers to handle massive load, >> you're basically slimming down to two," said Sivak. "You're just using >> HTML5, CSS, and Javascript, all being done in responsive design. The way >> it's being built matters. You could in theory do the same with application >> servers and a CMS, but it would be much more complex. What we're doing >> here >> is giving anyone with basic skills to basic changes on the fly. You don't >> need expensive consultants." >> >> To be fair, the major problems reportedly are not with the UI, but with >> the >> back end. IMO, an example of "pig lipstick". >> >> PS> For extra laughs, read some of the comments. >> > > For an extra giggle > http://www.reddit.com/r/**webdev/comments/1nj692/<http://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1nj692/> > . > > >> Kirk Wolf >> Dovetailed Technologies >> http://dovetail.com >> >> ------------------------------**------------------------------** >> ---------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >> send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> > > ------------------------------**------------------------------**---------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
