Hi all,
I'd like to bring your attention to an RFI (Request For Information) from the Local Government Computer Services Board:
http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/Search_View.aspx?ID=FEB199516
The LGCSB provide computer services to Irish County and Town Councils, although what they do for each Council varies a lot. The RFI is just looking for info on Open Source resources available.
At the moment, the IT and development staff in LGCSB (and I think in councils) are very Microsoft-oriented, but they are beginning to look at Open Source, possibly for cost reasons.
I've been into the LGCSNB recently and there seems to be good support for Drupal from the R&D section. However, in order to convince others within LGCSB and around the coutnry, they will need to show that Ireland has a strong Drupal community that can help them if they decide to make the transition.
So in the interest of collaboration rather than competition, I would encourage any of you doing commercial Drupal work to reply to the RFI!
Mike Cahn
Indytech
Comments
anyone do this?
just checking, has anyone submitted an RFI for this? (Indytech did).
RFI submitted
But haven't heard anything back yet. Does anyone know when and where are the various workshops due to be held? Limited information available on their website...
workshops
we got an email which gave us a date/time for presenting -- we're presenting tomorrow morning, i believe today and tomorrow are for CMS/doc mgt.
Re RFI
Sent Drupal & LAMP support over from inside the tent ;-). FYI have a look at http://www.eolasmagazine.ie/ictforum/events/innovation/index.php to get a sense of the culture. Then have a look at the new programme for govt. http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_2011/Programme.... Have a look at page 26 - www.fixmystreet.ie. Do you think you could offer something like http://www.symantec.com/connect/ giving "vendor lock" protection with "rapid" "function" module development with enterprise scalability ( Yeh I know its gobildygook but you need new hooks to catch this type of fish!). "Bon Chance" with the presentations. B
I gave a presentation today
I gave a presentation today too. This was originally going to be done by someone else, but I was able to attend.
They are seeing 40 presenters! Wow! Really cool. They are doing this request for information and it's not a competition. They are just looking for all kinds of advice. So excited to find out what they have planned. Looks like the struggles in the economy are also opportunities for open source adoption.
I think one of the thing they'll be asking about is the availability of services as well. For example, even the size of the community, and frequency of events is interesting too. Then, how many developers are available.
I spoke about Drupal, the flexibility, and the growth in gov't agencies world wide. Then of course about Acquia's services.
They said "don't do marketing", so we tried to keep it focused on the facts and information.
I hope that helps!
we did ours yesterday
Mickey & I gave ours Tues Reasonably informal, the people listening had a broad range of experience so we really targeted our talk on the more basic issues around moving to an unknown (from their point of view) CMS. I thought it went well, they asked a lot of questions, and as Heather said they are talking to quite a lot of vendors, almost all from Ireland, so that says a lot about the huge growth in the local Drupal community over the past few years