Well. Agreed on the IBM Mainers. Maybe if we banded together we could get one of those contracts.... I remember reading years ago a company had a contract to redo the IRS software and they wasted something like three or $4 billion and it never did work! We could definitely do that. LOL! If the government was in charge of Windows, we'd still be using typewriters :)
Duffy Sent from my iPad On Oct 15, 2013, at 12:37 PM, Kirk Wolf <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
