1.
Open Source - The Road Less Travelled
Using Open Source and Open Data at the GLA
David Munn
Greater London Authority

2.
“Exciting” Times

3.
Lots of priorities and choices

4.
Proprietary Software
 Obstinately expensive
 Mind-numbingly complex licencing
 Strong sanctions for non-compliance

5.
Technical constraints
 Complexity results in
compromises
 Compromises stifle
innovation
 Virtualisation limited
 Vague licence terms
backed up with risk of
legal action

6.
Building Support for OS
 Identify influencers that
might have an interest
 CEO / CFO
 Focus on the business
benefits (savings / flexibility)
 IT Strategy
 Sell the Strategy
 OS / Cloud First

7.
Deal with Legitimate Concerns
 Hard work
 Limited business benefits
 Savings in maintenance /
administration
 Costs / inconvenience of
proprietary solutions
 Strong security
 Open standards
supporting interoperability

8.
The Road Less Travelled
 Hard journey
 Replacing database
infrastructure
 Substantial savings

9.
Building the foundations
 Apache / Linux /
Tomcat - Apps
 Nagios – Monitoring
Network
 Drupal – Web-site /
Datastore
 Solr - Search
 Postgres / Maria DB –
Database Infrastructure

10.
Building the London Datastore
 Launched in 2010
 Provides datasets - free
 Encouraging others to use
the data to develop
applications
 http://data.london.gov.uk
 Real-time transport data is
being used
 Open Source Development
(Drupal)

11.
Collaboration and Participation
Open data – the London Data store
 Reaching out to the developer community
 Participatory approach
 Applications are now being developed using this data

12.
Collaboration and Participation

13.
Collaboration and Participation

14.
Collaboration and Participation
Interaction with Citizens at the heart of new web-site
 Open Source Environment
 Integrated with Social Media
 Seeking views on policy work

15.
Collaboration and Participation

16.
Collaboration and Participation

17.
Datastore Next Steps

18.
Just Do It!