In my view The IMIA, International Medical Informatics Association, is the most appropriate organization in which OSHCA should participate.
Sharing Open Source make much sense obvioulsly at international level. The information is then easily available to regional organizations, very large ones as www.amia.org, as well very small ones e.g. www.bmia.be Of course collaborations should be also followed with the AMIA, in North America. The IMIA has many working groups at international level. These working groups organize important dedicated conferences in various parts of the world. The IMIA is starting a new working group on Open Source. see http://www.amia.org --> Working groups ---> Open Source. A few weeks ago I did met Jan VEJVALKA at the MIE-2002 in Budapest. Etienne Saliez Brian Bray wrote: > > At last years AMIA, I went to a meeting initiated by the AMIA > executive to get input from AMIA members about open source. The > background was that the AMIA is working an a decision at the board > level about open source. The personal goal of some of the initiators > was to make the AMIA the major organisation in open source health care. > > There were a number of options suggested by members, including having > staff, launching an open source journal, funding a development > project, and sponsoring infrastructure (something like spirit > http://www.euspirit.org/ ). No decisions were made, the purpose of > the meeting was really to get people's ideas on the table. > > There has been some talk about OSHCA becoming a joint working group of > the AMIA and AAMC. This is one of the futures for OSHCA that we should > discuss in Los Angeles and put to a vote by OSHCA supporters after the > event. The current "dictatorship" model for the organisation is not > working for anyone anymore and we have the motion passed last year to > make OSHCA a democratic organisation. Joining an existing group > (whether AMIA, IMIA, AAMC, or Debian) is one way to accomplish this > and is arguably the most effective way to achieve the goals of the > OSHCA charter. The idea of becoming a joint working group of a number > of parent organisations is particularly interesting. > > For the (many? most? few?) people who want OSHCA to be independent of > anything else, you need to organise to propose something concrete for > OSHCA supporters to consider. What would be the legal form of the > organisation? What would the statutes say? What positions would be > elected? What things would be voted on? Would there be membership fees? > It has been a year since the motion to become democratic was passed > and no-one has stepped forward with a concrete proposal to consider in > Los Angeles. Time is running short. > > -Brian > > Kantor, Gary wrote: > >> One would have thought that AMIA, the largest American >> academically-oriented medical informatics group, would be a natural >> fit for open source. However their vision statement is here >> http://www.amia.org/about/stratplan/fstratplan.html and makes no >> mention of open source. >> >> HIMMS, on the other hand, is heavily oriented towards the commercial >> sector. >> >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: Joseph Dal Molin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >> > Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 3:49 PM >> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > Subject: Re: AMIA >> > >> > To be precise there was no relationship between AMIA and >> > OSHCA other than >> > the fact that Ed Hammond spoke at our meeting in London last >> > year. Ed did >> > announce that AMIA would try to set aside some funding for an >> > open source >> > project but not being a member of AMIA I haven't heard if >> > there was any >> > progress made in this area. Certainly any further interest in >> > collaborating >> > with respect to open source would be most welcome. >> > >> > >> > > >
