U.S. Tries Open-Source Model for Health Data Systems - NYTimes.com

Interesting open * times

The Direct Project, officials say, is not a conventional standards-setting group with committees, meetings and rounds of voting. “We won’t see the rapid innovation we want to see using the traditional way,” said Dr. Douglas Fridsma, head of standards at the federal health information technology office.

An open-source pioneer, Brian Behlendorf, was recruited as an adviser on how to set up and govern the project. Mr. Behlendorf, now the chief technology officer for the World Economic Forum, was a creator the Apache Web server, one of the most widely used open-source software programs.

The health project’s work was guided by a principle Mr. Behlendorf calls “do-ocracy” — convince people not with words, but with working code.

U.S. Tries Open-Source Model for Health Data Systems - NYTimes.com