MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-09-12 |
| FROM | swd
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT]
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From Crain's New York, September 3, 2008.
Here is the link:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080903/FREE/809039964
Note the comment about Micro$oft (HA!).
Here is the article:
CUNY, Red Hat and Intel team up on tech lab
Amanda Fung
Published: September 3, 2008 - 3:27 pm
New York City’s tech geeks have a new playground. The City University of New
York and tech giants Red Hat Inc. and Intel on Thursday morning will unveil
the New York City Open Source Solutions Lab, the first such facility in town.
The center, located at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Institute of Software Design
and Development in midtown Manhattan, is a state of the art facility where
information technology professionals employed by the city government and
other public agencies can develop cost-effective and flexible technology for
city programs and services. The lab’s hardware and software was donated by
Red Hat and Intel. CUNY will train students to help out with work being
conducted at the lab. The cost to build the lab was not disclosed.
“The new lab is important to the city because open source is a trend,†said
Ted Brown, the executive director of the CUNY Institute for Software Design
and Development. “There is so much software that is being developed and will
be developed that people should be properly trained to use it and made aware
of it.â€
Open source has become an important part of a number of tech companies’
business model including Microsoft Corp. and Facebook. The term refers to the
approach of letting different software developers freely create and enhance
technology for the Web. Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat is an early pioneer of
open source software.
The creation of the lab was two years in the making, according to Mr. Brown,
noting that the recent support of Intel, Red Hat as well as the city’s
Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications made it finally
come to reality this year. New York City and state IT staff will be able to
make an appointment to use the Lab for testing technology and other support
services.
"The Solutions Lab provides the ideal environment for New York-based agencies
and departments to see the benefits for themselves,†said Paul Smith, vice
president of Government Sales Operations at Red Hat, in a statement.
“Adoption of open source is growing rapidly across the public sector and with
this Solutions Lab, New York has put itself in the forefront of open source
innovation."
Several city agencies have already expressed strong interest in using the lab,
said Mr. Brown.
"It’s an ideal proving ground for testing the value proponent of open source
and leveraging those cost savings for our agencies," said Paul J. Cosgrave,
commissioner of DoITT, in a statement.
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