Feature Articles

A Breakdown Of FOSS For Students And Researchers In Academia

This article provides an overview of free and open source software (FOSS) that may be of use to students and researchers in academia, based on my own experience in psychology studies. I use Ubuntu Linux, which is a FOSS operating system, but the software discussed in this article is multi-platform; in other words, it will also run on Apple Mac OSX or Microsoft Windows. There is so much FOSS available that this article only scratches the surface, but hopefully it will give some initial pointers to readers with an academic background but no previous experience of FOSS...

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Open Data Institute Forges Stronger Connections Between Data Innovators and UK Government

Speaking at the Open Data Institute's (ODI) third annual Summit, British Minister Matt Hancock said the ODI will help bring the voice and views of businesses and innovators working across the data spectrum to the Government's Cabinet Office, and spread awareness of data innovation across government. He said: "As a data-driven government, we want to engage with the UK’s data economy. So from today, I’ve asked the ODI to help us connect with the businesses, start-ups and innovators progressing this field. Those who are at the leading edge, not just in open data but across the whole data spectrum."

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Open Data Institute: Over £40m Value Unlocked Worldwide

The Open Data Institute (ODI) has announced that the total value it has helped unlock to the open data ecosystem has exceeded £40m in the three years since it opened. This includes direct income, grants and competition funding, incubated ODI Startup income and the ODI Node franchise network. Also today, the company confirmed that five new startup businesses, and four new franchise nodes will join and that its membership programme has topped 350 participants, including the Co-op and Ocado.

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How to Keep a Technical Conference Relevant for Decades

LISA is an annual technical conference for IT operations professionals, organized by The USENIX Association. The first LISA was held back in 1986, and the event still has a reputation for delivering top-notch technical content and an exceptional hallway track. This year, Amy Rich (Mozilla Corporation) and Cory Lueninghoener (Los Alamos National Laboratory) co-chaired the conference. In this interview, Amy offers a preview of what's in store at LISA15 and tips for conference-planning teams...

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Robots in Healthcare - Will they do the Heavy Lifting?

There are already robots in health care.  Robotic surgery, delivery robots, robotic prescription dispensing systems, even therapeutic robots used in lieu of pet therapy  But we've just scratched the surface, because we still think of care as being something that is delivered by a person. People like to talk about the importance of the human touch, but when it comes to something like getting out of bed when I want to, I think I'd rather have immediate service from a robot than an indeterminate wait for help from an aide.  And there are some more unpleasant tasks -- like assistance with going to the bathroom -- where I'd prefer not to have to ask another person to help me at all.  Sometimes impersonal is better (just be gentle, please).

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RWJF Report: Time to Transition to a Post-HITECH World?

Context and perspective matter. And it’s often both context and perspective that are lacking from the daily snapshots we get of health information technology, meaningful use, interoperability and the progress we are either making or not making, depending on your perspective. So I welcome a report like the one the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released last month on the state of health information technology circa 2015 in these United States. Subtitled “Transition to a Post-HITECH World,” the detailed report, created in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Communication, the Harvard School of Public Health and Mathematica Policy Research, takes a 10,000-feet view of the ongoing digitalization of healthcare and what the priorities are as we approach the terminus of HITECH.

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Halamka on The ONC 2015 Certification Rule

Just as I summarized the CMS Meaningful Use Final Rule last week, this week I’ll summarize the 560 pages of the ONC 2015 Certification Final Rule. Key points to understanding the rule include...The 2015 Certification Rule is decoupled from Meaningful Use. Thus, you’ll find functionality to support EHR Incentive Programs plus  several certification criteria for long-term/post-acute care, chronic care management, behavioral health,  and other programs such as merit-based incentive payments  (MIPS).

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Open Source Software's Implications Beyond Software

Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, was sporting his awesome red shoes as he spoke to a crowded room at All Things Open last week. During his keynote on Day 1, he talked about how open source is a key part of the open organization, but what we're all looking to achieve has implications far beyond software. Jim began his keynote by explaining why there is a need for the principles of open source in business. If we think of the world we come from and the world we are coming into we see that there is a long line of change...

Halamka Summarizes the CMS Meaningful Use Final Rule

I’ve been asked to summarize the  752 page CMS Meaningful Use  Final Rule...Between the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the publication of the CMS Final Rule, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) passed to include sunsetting the Meaningful Use payment adjustment for professionals at the end of 2018.   Also, MACRA requires the establishment of a Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) which would incorporate Meaningful Use.  The comment period will be used in an attempt to align the Meaningful Use program and the MIPS program...Stage 3 is more controversial and I will focus on that.

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FASTR Ensures that Publicly Funded Research Belongs to the Public

When taxpayers pay for research, everyone should have access to it. That’s the simple premise of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act of 2015 (S.779, H.R.1477), or FASTR. If enacted, FASTR would keep federally funded research where it belongs, in the hands of the public. Under FASTR, every federal agency that spends more than $100 million on grants for research would be required to adopt an open access policy. Although the bill gives each agency some leeway in adopting a policy appropriate to the types of research it funds, each one would require that published research be available to the public no later than six months after publication.

Will The RIO Journal be the Most Open Scientific Publication?

A large amount of scientific research is published in scientific journals, and there has been a lot of debate around offering open access to these articles, along with the underlying data, software, and methods. There is a new journal that launched recently with the goal of going beyond traditional scientific publishing by encompassing all outputs of the research cycle. What does this mean? The RIO Journal (Research Ideas and Outcomes) is launching with the goal of publishing a number of things not currently published, in addition to more conventional outputs on a single collaborative platform. This includes things such as project proposals, data, methods, workflows, software, project reports, and research articles.

The Future Of Scientific Publishing: Let's Make Sure It's Fair As Well As Transparent

Scientific publishing has undergone a revolution in recent years – largely due to the internet. And it shows no sign of letting up as a growing number of countries attempt to ensure that research papers are made freely available. Publishers are struggling to adapt their business models to the new challenges. But it is not just the publishers who struggle. Peer-reviewed publications are extremely important for academics, who use them to communicate their latest research findings. When it comes to making decisions about hiring and promotion, universities often use an academic’s publication record. However, the use of publication consultants and increasingly long lists of authors in certain disciplines are changing the game. So where will it all end?

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Writing Documentation with AsciiDoc

I discovered AsciiDoc while writing Learn Linux in a Month of Lunches. AsciiDoc is a fantastically thorough markup language for writing books—think Markdown, but with more options, such as sidebars, notes, and tables. AsciiDoc lets you just type, with simple syntax controlling the formatting. When I first started writing my book, I was using Word style sheets with LibreOffice. Manning, my publisher, offered .odt versions for OpenOffice, but I had trouble getting the styles to work...

‘France's Open Source Policy Spurs ICT Market’

France’s policies on open source and open data are helping to create a market for French ICT service providers, says Didier Tranchier, Professor of Innovation Management at Institut Mines-Telecom, a research institute. Professor Tranchier, who coaches and invests in high tech companies, spoke at the Mindtrek OpenMind conference in Tampere (Finland) in September. “Open data, open content and open source have deep roots in France”, said Tranchier. “We started this in 1789.”According to Tranchier, there is a direct link between the government’s policies and the rapid growth of open source firms.

Open Source Day at Grace Hopper 2015

The 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) started out like any other, with a giant room filled with thousands of women with a passion for technology and computing. This year's welcome keynote opened with green lights strobing over a dark room. What a way to highlight the rows and rows of women ready to learn, connect, and join new communities. Telle Whitney, founder of GHC, was first to the podium and offered a heartfelt and sincere welcome message that brought a tear to my eye. She spoke of the women who built GHC from their vision of a better future, where women and men take equal part in technology, and of her diagnosis of an auto immune disease. But she's doing well she says, and thanked everyone for their thoughts and concern...