software for & by the public

Software

for and by the Public

Yiannis MavraganisSoftware Engineer & Certified Scrum Master

Founder of social recommendations platform www.laloon.com

Passionate Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner Athens 2012

Today’s Unemployed Educated Knowledge Worker

Government must do more with less!

• Public Sector runs on software

• High percentage of Government

IT projects fail

Better software in public sector

to improve people's lives

and boost economic development

We can combine both needs

and have thousands of skilled unemployed people

active and gaining experience

by building applications

for better public services

Combining the Two Needs

We have

the tools and methodologies

to support the idea

Peer Production and crowdsourcing

How do we do combine them?

Open Source Development MethodologyWorks

…collaborative open source projects demonstrate empirically that large, complex systems of code can be built, maintained, developed, and extended in non-proprietary settings in which many developers work in highly parallel, relatively unstructured ways and without direct monetary compensation.

Steven Weber “The Political Economy of Open Source Software.” Global Business Network March 2001

The time has come to open (not out) sourceapplications

Proposal

Government already using Open Sourceproducts in the lower layers of software stack (operating systems, application servers, workflow engines) and saving money

Agile and Lean

Software Development Practices

Save IT Projects

Self-organizing teams

Incremental delivery

Small batches of work

Customer involvement

Test-driven development

Minimization of work in progress

Visualization of workflow

Continuous process improvement

How a 100 mpg Car Was Developed in

Three Months*

* Forbes May 10 2012

Lean Startup in Government

"The Lean Startup isn't just about how to create a more

successful entrepreneurial business, it's about what we can learn

from those businesses to improve virtually everything we do.

I imagine Lean Startup principles applied to government

programs, to healthcare, and to solving the world's great

problems. It's ultimately an answer to the question 'How can we

learn more quickly what works, and discard what doesn't?'"

— Tim O'Reilly, CEO O'Reilly Media

We know the how but ….what to build?

Peer production for service design

Crowdsourcingapproach for requirements-gathering and problem-solving

Collaboration between People

who know the problem domain

and will be the producers of the solution

Let’s do it

√ Open source works

√ Agile and Lean work

√ Requirements Crowd-sourcing and

peer production work

X Public services do not work

at high quality

Well educated unemployed people

X don’t work

but

√ want to work

Win-Win Situation

The skilled unemployed

Practice their knowledge in the real work environment

Serve their country and have a reason to stay

The Government

Reorganizes Public Sector for free

Citizens

Enjoy better public services and can help their country

by contributing to this effort

Private companies

Have long term benefits

Challenges

• Intellectual rights

• Security Issues

• Coordination

• Conflict Resolution

• Architectural Decisions

• Government Adoption

Each of us Can Be a Part of the Solution

To exit the financial crisis, we have to use

the force of “the opponent” for our own good

in order to start the mechanism rolling…

“We fight because we like fighting, we sing even though there is no ear to hear us.

We work even though there is no master to pay us our wages when night falls. We do not work for others, we are the masters.

This vineyard of earth is ours, our own flesh and blood.

We cultivate and prune it, we gather its grapes and tread them, we drink its wine, we sing and we weep, ideas and visions rise in our heads.

In what season of the vineyard has it fallen your lot to work? In the digging? In the vintage? In the feasting? All these are one.”

“We fight because we like fighting, we sing even though there is no ear to hear us.

We work even though there is no master to pay us our wages when night falls. We do not work for others, we are the masters.

This vineyard of earth is ours, our own flesh and blood.

We cultivate and prune it, we gather its grapes and tread them, we drink its wine, we sing and we weep, ideas and visions rise in our heads.

In what season of the vineyard has it fallen your lot to work? In the digging? In the vintage? In the feasting? All these are one.”

Nikos Kazantzakis Spiritual Exercises: Preparation “The Third Duty.” Translated by Kimon Friar