Hi everyone,
I must apologise for the lapse in time following the flurry of
discussion during the month of November 2005 just before the WSIS in
Tunis on the ressurection of OSHCA. I was prompted by Joseph to see if I
had "recovered" from the trip. There was so much to do as follow-up to
such a big event, plus the end of year chores.
I re-read the postings on the subject and also re-visited the OSHCA.org
web-site to see how relevant were the objectives that were set for OSHCA
especially in the current context of the open source movement towards
mainstream computing. Even Richard Stallman acknowledged that the GPL
needs a revision, which its currently undergoing. We're also painfully
aware of the lack of responsibility and accountability in dealing with
open source applications that can result in the compromise of patient
safety and outcomes. Recent postings here on "dangerous" questions, OSS
collections etc. also brought out possible alternatives to OSHCA, but
also highlight the absence of an independant global platform to
champion, promote, co-ordinate, collaborate etc open source applications
in health care.
There were also expressions of concerns of various aspects and
dimensions, right from the democratic manner of how OSHCA is to be
formed to whether we should have a new mailing list... Though I
volunteered to move it forward, I also realised that its going to be a
very difficult job in order to accommodate all views. As a start, I
think its important to review what OSHCA is as stated in its current
web-site http://www.oshca.org:
"The Open Source Health Care Alliance is a collaborative forum to
promote and facilitate open source software in human and veterinary
healthcare."
"OSHCA is a community of people in the health care and informatics
industries that promotes the open source software concept in health care."
"OSHCA helps policy makers, commercial enterprises, and users take
advantage of the benefits of open source."
There is also the Charter found here http://www.oshca.org/charter.html
that needs to be reviewed.
Here are bits and pieces of statements/questions that were
expressed/asked recently... that will help to formulate the Vision,
Mission Statements for OSHCA. I would like to get this done with
discussions on this mailing list before moving on to listing out the
next steps to form the protem committee and get OSHCA incorporated. We
also need to decide where OSHCA should be incorporated - developed or
developing country and then zoom into deciding the specific country.
... Is anything happening at present with OSHCA? .... OSHCA is in
hibernation or dead
.... In the UK, the British Computer Society has just set up an Open
Source Specialist Group (ossg.bcs.org.uk)
.... believe that there is still an international void. I had thought
that IMIA might pick it up but ......
....there is a void and that there is a possibility of a ressurection of
OSHCA. There is no record in the trademark office.
11/5/2005 7:40 PM
I would be happy to transfer the registration for OSHCA.ORG and to
see OSHCA restarted.
When OSHCA was formed, there was concern that some governmental
organisations could not participate if the organisation was too
formal, so it was chartered as a "working group" and my company
agreed to hold the IP rights on behalf of the group. Subsequently, it
was overwealmingly decided that the group needed to have a
democratic structure in order to grow. Some form of incorporation,
probably as a non-profit, is necessary for OSHCA to hold it's own IP
rights. I would very much like to see that happen so I can pass
control to something durable.
If this is what you are proposing, then I'm 100% behind you.
-Brian (Bray)
...I would recommend that you consider partnering with the Open Source
Working Group of the AMIA.
...I would prefer to see OSHCA independent from AMIA.
....It would be another thing to have OSHCA as international umbrella
organisation of various national organisations
...that OSHCA remain an independent "umbrella" organization of various
national organisations and, of course, of Open Source Software
projectsin the healthcare domain.
...The vision for OSHCA when it was first formed was that of a "meeting
place" and a community of communities. This vision is still very valid
IMHO, and the need even greater now that there is some real progress and
much more credibility for open source in health.
....and collecting together information on them and sharing them as well
as sharing approaches would be a fitting activity for OSCHA.
.....one of the goals for OSHCA is being a catalyst for change.
...Funding would be nice, but tends to take us into having projects... rather than beeing a meeting of people's projects.
...OSHCA should be an independent organisation / meta-organisation in my view -
a forum as others have said.
...There are politics/issues within AMIA that prevent a WG from being all
inclusive. However, there are mechanisms that are provided to allow for
collaboration such as with the IMIA - OSWG........
My apologies for this "lengthy" e-mail. Just to make up for the lapse
.... :) I still have the list of volunteers for the protem committee. In
between someone requested for a short write-up of each as well....
Rgds,
Molly
