Recently, I was able to do a temporary detail to GSA from my agency (Veterans Affairs). My detail involved the creation of a url shortener (it's in a Beta test now, but you can see it at http://go.usa.gov).
I had amazing help from friends in the Drupal community, especially my friend SeanR.
However, there was also a lot of discussion about the usual sorts of things:
· Drupal isn’t secure,
· it’s gonna crash our system,
· can’t be done,
· it’s not safe for government,
· too vulnerable to cross site scripting,
So, I'm here to find out how this group is helping to encourage the use of Drupal in US government IT projects. What sites use Drupal, what projects are pending and what were successes and failures in trying to push for Drupal in your agencies?
So, come on, I'm all ears!!
Comments
i'm doing enterprise applications with Drupal
I work in a Federal University in Brazil and we use Drupal for a long time to make websites, with a heavy J2EE background with the corporate systems. But some months ago, i started to push Drupal as a platform for enterprise applications too. Why? Exactly because i see Drupal as the opposite of this "usual sort of things": an extremely robust platform that benefits from some of the best patterns in the software development world.
Well... misused, every tool could be insecure, and with Drupal isn't different. But, out of the box plus some amazing modules, Drupal have much more strength than 99% of the applications available. It's heavily tested, used, upgraded. This is the open source model. It's very difficult to beat.
If you use the wrong tools, you'll crash every system. To scale, you need to think about some things that the majority of apps doesn't take care, like the most simple cache. And some cache options is already built-in in Drupal, plus some modules like memcached and boost, you can hold everything.
Well, i used to hear this too, because entreprise apps have much more complexity and "Drupal is a site builder"... I'm using Drupal to make a webapp that connects to an Oracle database, the main corporate system, catch some info in another database in PostgreSQL, finally walking his way with the business rules and saving in MySQL. All with MVC, DAO, Services, tests, etc. I dropped Java, JSF and JBoss Seam to use Drupal.
And I'm doing a school management system entirely in Drupal too.
After that, i think I can do anything with Drupal.
If one agency uses it - another will
We are a communications/media consulting firm that works extensively with US Federal agencies mostly with HHS. We typically have been required to use .NET, but are pushing aggressively to have our next projects done in Drupal.
One thing that we've noticed - with any technology decision within the US federal government, whether it is to use Drupal, implement specific media strategies, use social media ... no agency wants to go "first" or be the guinea pig. Everyone is afraid of sticking out like a sore thumb. It's far safer for them to just make excuses for why things can't change than to push new efforts that might get them in trouble.
So, in the case of Drupal, when we can point to other US federal agencies that use it, many of the barriers come down quickly. I should note, it is our experience, however shortsighted it is that showing Drupal is used at the state level (New York State Senate) or within other countries isn't enough. It needs to be US federal.
That being the case, the White House uses Drupal on Recovery.gov. While the site is much maligned, the technical quality isn't questioned - and the fact it is a White House sponsored site is huge. I am also under the impression that NASA uses Drupal, as does the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - both perpetual Webby award nominees and winners.
While we haven't had success yet to get them to give us the ok to use Drupal, the typical concerns "Drupal isn't secure, safe for government, too vulnerable, is going to crash" don't apply anymore - the White House and NASA don't seem worried about it - why should HHS be (or any other federal agency).
The excuse at that point becomes - we're already standardized on xyz platform (within HHS now, that's .NET in most cases). That's not really accurate either. Many legacy sites still use Cold Fusion within HHS (a previous standard), and each .NET implementation is custom - for the handful of projects we've been brought into consult on - the administrative content management systems written in .NET are competely and entirely different. There is no operational and managerial standardization. Using a Drupal platform for projects woutl substantially increase operational efficiencies - we could all train content admins on one platform and each implementation would require only familiarizing the content admins with slightly unique issues specific to that one project.
I'd really like to see a group of us come together and really pressure the feds on this. I think to this point, it's mostly been done at the technical level - and it needs to be done on the communications side of things - as that's where the decisions really get made ... if project officers and communications clearance folks push hard enough - the technology support groups have to submit. It's a slightly different sell than what's been done before I think.
I hope we can work together and share what government sites are using Drupal already - as that really is perhaps 75% of the battle.
Does this use shorturl?
Bendygirl,
looks like you are using the shorturl module (http://drupal.org/project/shorturl). I am guessing it by looking at the generated URLs and the fact that Seanr, who you credited for help, was active on the module's issue queue. Can you, please, confirm?
Giving proper credit is important for the module since it encourages its development.
Thank you,
Irakli
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http://twitter.com/inadarei
modules used
I'm pulling this from our FAQ page http://go.usa.gov/faq
I have some ideas to improve Go.USA.gov. How can I help?
Go.USA.gov is open source, and was developed in Drupal using the Drupal Core, Shorten, Short URL, and TLD restriction modules. If you want to contribute to Go.USA.gov, please contact us.
Yes, we are using the Shorturl, but you also need Shorten to work right. And yes, Seanr is on the message que. We were trying to get a couple of patches committed for both Shorten and Shorturl. We attributed all the modules (and Core) for the development and I've recommended that these be noted in media news abuot the shortener. Unforuntately, I don't think the media is all that interested in the modules we used.
I see the Terp, does this mean you're local? And, coming out tonight for the DC Drupal meetup? I'm planning to attend tonight's meetup.
Just a minor kind of drupal geeky girl and for the US government no less!
BTW
the comment about using the two together, that's not directed at you, it's for anyone reading the comment. As an aside, nice job on the Shorturl. I think http://drupa.ly and http://go.usa.gov look great, because of the work you've done.
Just a minor kind of drupal geeky girl and for the US government no less!
Sounds good. Thank you for
Sounds good.
Thank you for the clarification.
Yeah, we are local and I am a college park alumni :)
See you at the meet-up.
cheers,
Irakli
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http://twitter.com/inadarei
The importance of open source attribution
I agree with my colleague Irakli that proper attribution is critical in open source (or anywhere someone's hard work can be used so directly for free). We welcome and support the use of open source for government because it is an area where community can serve community. However, I think it is also fair to say that the community works off the goodwill and trust of its patrons to provide due credit.
I wouldnt expect you to be responsible for what the media wrote about the URL shortener, but the article I read in Information Week read says something quite contrary to what you have since clarified for us here.
"...To develop the service, GSA borrowed a developer from the Department of Veterans Affairs, who developed a new open source module in Drupal to shorten URLs, and contributed that code back to the Drupal community..."
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/10/the_corporate_...
With regards to the media, I certainly understand how controlling what they print can be difficult (especially without getting into the technology details), but I think as open source becomes more mainstream and is written about more, we must all help educate those writing about it. I am sure journalists of all people know how important proper attribution is.
Anyway, hoping to meet you tonight at the Drupal meetup so we can discuss more.
I hope
I was able to help with the understanding tonight.
As much as I would like for everyone in the press (and everywhere else) to understand that contributed modules were used for the shortener project, it's just not the case. Either they don't get it or they don't care, or maybe it's a combination of both. If nothing else, it's in the FAQ piece and I hope people are looking and reading and understanding the work that went into it before I was ever called or before I even asked Sean to load the modules in his sandbox.
BTW, it was really awesome meeting you tonight, Irakli. I really felt very humbled by shaking hands with the guy who made the project possible. Thank you. Now, hopefully, the patches Sean's pulled together might be good fits for you and the module you wrote.
Just a minor kind of drupal geeky girl and for the US government no less!
You did
You did and it was great to meet you. I hope this makes another great use case for federal use of open source and Drupal to boot!
It was great to meet you,
It was great to meet you, too, Kirsten. Thank you for promoting open-source in the government.
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http://twitter.com/inadarei
user registration / login rules
I see that only users from @gov, can register & login. How did you do that?
Thanks.
S.