Fred, This is encouraging and I wish you great success!
Two questions: 1. How do you define "hybrid vendors" and distinguish them from FOSS vendors? 2. What roll, if any, do you see for companies having patented methodologies? Thanks, Steve Beller --- In openhealth@yahoogroups.com, fred trotter <fred.trot...@...> wrote: > > Thanks for replying... I sent you a private email about coordinating our > efforts. > > -FT > > On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 1:10 PM, <karo...@...> wrote: > > > Hi Fred! > > > > Congratulations! As co-chair of the EFMI LIFOSS WG and member of the IMIA > > OS WG I am looking forward to work together with LibertyHSF. I am confident > > that we share the same long term goals and that we can collaborate to > > achieve these comon goals. > > > > Our current focus is on fostering the collaboration between different FLOSS > > in health care projects and to organize conferences and workshops to > > disseminate knowledge about the benefits and prospects of FLOSS. We recently > > organized a workshop at BIOSTEC (OSEHC) and will organize a second edition > > of OSEHC in 2010. We also organized a workshop at Med-e-Tel 2009 and will > > have another one in 2010. At MIE2009 there will be a workshop about FLOSS > > -HC and in 2010 we participate in the organization of the International > > workshop on ehealth in emerging economies (IWEEE). > > > > Thanks for taking the initiative of founding LibertyHSF and looking forward > > to work together with you. > > > > Best wishes, > > Thomas Karopka > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > FOSS Community, > > > > I am writing to let you know that Liberty Health Software > > Foundation has received 501c3 status. > > Dr. Valdes and I have been working on this for over two years and we are > > ready to present this to the community-at-large. > > > > The purpose of Liberty Health Software Foundation (LibertyHSF) is to > > improve > > the delivery and science of healthcare by supporting the development and > > use > > of Free/Libre Healthcare Software. > > > > We are in a unique position with the organization because we want to both > > be > > careful with how we set things up for long term sustainability, as well as > > getting some critical tasks done now. I wish this email were somewhat more > > organized, but as it stands it is just several lists of directions that we > > want to take as well as open questions about a slew of issues. Feel free to > > email me privately or call me to discuss anything that you would prefer to > > remain outside the public forum. I am and will remain baised towards those > > who have contributed towards our community, I will listen to everyone, but > > I > > will act based on the opinions of those who have sacrificed for our > > movement. > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > How do we choose a BOD? > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > We want a mix of FOSS corporate and FOSS community interests. Sometimes > > what > > our successful FOSS companies do is in the interests of the FOSS developer > > and user interests and sometimes it is not? Our community has several > > non-vendor roles: deployers, which include IT specialist who deploy FOSS, > > clinical users, developers and finally the consumers who have their health > > data stored in FOSS systems. How do we balance community and vendor > > interests? > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > We want to include and embrace hybrid FOSS/proprietary companies like > > Mysis, > > ECW and DSS but still acknowledge that at least part of their interests are > > to support proprietary software. How do we strike a balance of encouraging > > the risks that these hybrid companies are taking, but still remaining true > > to the FOSS values? > > > > Liberty HSF goal: Certification: Create a certification system compatible > > with FOSS > > -> Current plan: work with CCHIT to become the scholarship > > organization for CCHIT certification, and to make CCHIT have a reasonable > > cert option for FOSS > > -> Backup plan: become an FOSS oriented CCHIT alternative > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > How do we deal with CCHIT as an organization AND as a community of > > independent thinkers? > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > When do we decide that we need to 'fork' CCHIT and setup an alternative > > certification system? > > > > Liberty HSF goal: Vendor organization: be a FOSS EHRVA (this is what we are > > talking about here) > > -> Represent FOSS Vendors the way that EHRVA claims to and > > HIMSS pretends it does not. > > -> Lobby (in compliance with the rules for 501c3) for FOSS > > vendor interests > > -> Create our own definition of 'meaningful use' to through > > into the mix > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > We need to give a vehicle the FOSS vendors to express their views, as > > distinct from the community. Vendor profitability is critical to our > > community, we need FOSS vendors to form the backbone of our community. How > > do we carve out a space for vendors specifically, while ensuring that the > > overall purpose of Liberty HSF to represent every member of our community > > is > > not damaged? > > > > -> Community Organization: be a FOSS HIMSS > > -> Create and back FOSS conferences (like DOCHS and > > FOSSHEALTH) > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > How do we run better conferences and meetings so that eventually we can > > compete with HIMSS? > > > > -> Development organization: be a FOSS RWJ > > -> Fund and/or internally develop FOSS solutions that are > > 'orphan', the kind of projects that are not clearly profitable, but are > > still useful. > > -> Like documentation? > > -> Like user manuals? > > -> Like toolkits? > > -> Like services that the community needs, like > > CA services etc etc > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > How do we tell the difference between projects that need extra development > > dollars and coders, and those that are largely self-sufficient? How do we > > choose what projects to support? To a great extent, this will have to be > > determined by those who donate either time or money? > > > > OPEN QUESTION? > > How do we interact with other organizations like Open Health Tools and > > WorldVistA? > > > > My plan so far: > > > > The following seems obviously true and represents 'already made' decisions. > > > > - We need to move away from me as benevolent dictator of this > > organization quickly, to establish credibility. But a full BOD should be > > something that the community has input on, we should have general > > nominations etc etc. So Dr. Valdes, David Whitten and I will appoint an > > arbitrary interim BOD (announced soon) which will allow us to move > > quickly > > and take our time thinking about the BOD issue long term. > > - No one is going to have tons of time for this, and there need to be > > sub-groupings of LibertyHSF for different purposes, sub-groups should > > have > > latitude to take positions for LibertyHSF on particular issues. These > > should > > take the form of small committees. > > - Obvious initial groups include: > > - A vendor association committee, made up of representatives of FOSS and > > Hybrid vendors in order to establish strictly vendor positions. A > > critical > > first question for this group will be how does the FOSS community define > > 'meaningful use'? > > - A certification committee who will take over my role as chief > > negotiator with CCHIT and determine when and if LibertyHSF needs to > > become a > > certifying body. > > - Conferences and Development committees are equally important, but as we > > have no general funds for development yet that is a non-issue, and the > > conferences are already happening without LibertyHSF so these can wait. > > > > My short-term priorities are to create grass roots lobbying during this > > politically critical time and to sort out the certification issue ASAP. > > Should I have other very-short term priorities? > > > > Long term my priorities for LibertyHSF are: > > to create an formal meeting place for the vendors in the industry that > > represents them towards governments, > > to sponsor important development that is not particularly 'profitable' > > (assuming vendors will sponsor profitable development), like documentation, > > or helpful libraries. > > to create a conference or series of conferences that become the central > > meeting point(s) for our community > > to increase between project collaboration > > to educate clinicians about software freedom > > to lobby in support of FOSS in healthcare > > to encourage the use of FOSS in health academia > > to collaboratively develop standards/position documents when no other > > existing organization can/will address the issue > > to apply for grants for development funds > > to provide education for the implications of FOSS licensing in healthcare > > to provide a trusted third party for devisive community issues > > to make health databases and health data services available in a FOSS > > compatible fashion, (like a FOSS drug database) > > to encourage proprietary health software vendors to become hybrid or purse > > FOSS software vendors > > to remain neutral to particular projects but still recognizing the > > relevance > > of a user base (i.e. no preference between Canonical and Redhat but still > > recognize that GNU/Linux is more relevant than FreeDOS) > > to make LibertyHSF -our- organization and not just -my- organization... to > > that end: > > > > What long term and short term priorities am I missing? What does the > > community want and need from this organization? > > > > -- > > Fred Trotter > > http://www.fredtrotter.com > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Fred Trotter > http://www.fredtrotter.com > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
