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Dia - Free Diagram Creation Software |
In my article on free and open source software, I forgot to mention Dia. We don’t use it very often, but it’s great for creating flowcharts, organizational charts. etc. Download the Windows version from Dia-Installer. Details at Dia.
If you use the program be aware that the default font size is very large, so you’ll probably want to reduce that. You’ll also want to change your page size to Letter from A4.
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Connect Ohio Internet Access Research |
Connect Ohio has some very useful information for supporting web-site or client e-mail initiatives.
Connect Ohio has a practical assessment of current broadband services, which allows them to present the picture of broadband issues that need to be addressed, in your community and elsewhere.
They also have County Research information about household computer usage, internet adoption, online activities, etc. for each county in Ohio.
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Cost/Benefit Analysis Part 2 - Good Enough for Government Work |
It’s a punchline right, “Good enough for government work?” Certainly not the attitude at your agency or mine, but “Good enough for government work” has something to teach us when evaluating IT alternatives.
Benefit/Cost Ratio is calculated by dividing the total present value benefits by the total present value costs. Where costs exceed benefits, the ratio will be less than 1 and breakeven will not be reached. The same applies for marginal costs and marginal benefits. That is, when comparing alternatives it is sometimes easier to compare the marginal costs and marginal benefits of alternative choices. Where marginal costs exceed marginal benefits, the alternative is not optimal.
Applying this “marginal” cost/benefit analysis can also allow us to clearly see the law of diminishing returns in action. Beyond some point, each additional software feature or unit of hardware capacity (at almost always more cost) yields less and less output. Further, software features and hardware capacity do not necessarily equate to any organizational or societal benefit. In, the book, “Benefits Management: Delivering Value from IS & IT Investments” John L. Ward and Elizabeth Daniel teach us that, “IS and IT vendors are keen to promote the many features of their products and, all too often, organizations believe that the list of features equates to a list of benefits that the systems will provide to their organizations. However, it is seldom the case but can result in organizations buying and installing systems that either do not meet their needs or are overcomplex. As a result those systems tend to be underutilized and hence fail to deliver the expected benefits.”
John and Elizabeth suggest that rather than starting with the features and functions of the technology or system, agencies should start with what it is that’s causing the organization to consider the investment and what the project is expected to deliver. “It is only when this and the required change management actions have been identified that the IS and IT required should be assessed, leading to a technology specification that is ’sufficient to do the job’.” Or, “Good enough for government work.”
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Cost/Benefit Analysis Part 1 - The Government Line |
I’ll be writing a series of posts on Cost/Benefit Analysis.
First the Government line: baseline excerpts from government hosted publications regarding cost/benefit analysis, and links back to the publication.
OMB Circular A094 - Guidelines and Discount Rates for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Federal Programs:
Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Health Care Finance Administration Feasibility, Alternatives, And Cost/Benefit Analysis Guide:
Benefit/Cost Ratio is calculated for the status quo and each alternative by dividing the total present value benefits by the total present value costs. Where benefits equal costs, the ratio will be 1. For benefits exceeding costs, the ratio will be more than 1, again preferable. In fact, the larger the number (within reason), the more attractive the alternative. On the other hand, where costs exceed benefits, the ratio will be less than 1. Breakeven will not be reached.
The Value of IT Investments: It’s not just Return On Investment
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Free and Open Source Software |
At Seneca County DJFS we use a variety of free and open source software packages.
We have an internal web site for hosting a variety of programs and information for internal use. The web-site resides on the same server we use for document imaging (so there was no additional hardware we had to purchase), and utilizes “included” web hosting software IIS. Of course we could have used any of a variety of open source software for hosting (such as Apache), but IIS was already setup for document imaging.
PHP is a programming language for web pages. You embed PHP code inside web pages to include data from databases, process forms, and the like. PHP is a powerful tool and the basic building block for all of our internal web applications (with the exception of document imaging), and thousands of other free and open source software packages.
MySQL (Community Edition) is the world’s most popular open source database and the required or suggested database for may other free and open source software packages. If you’re wondering how MySQL compares against commercial and other open source databases, check out this article on Wikipedia, builder.au, and MySQL’s Benchmarks page.
phpMyAdmin is a MySQL administration tool written in PHP. You use phpMyAdmin’s web interface to create, administer, and backup MySQL databases. If you have PHP and MySQL it almost goes without saying you need phpMyAdmin.
MRBS is a web-based system for booking meeting rooms. With a little imagination it can also be used to book other agency resources like vehicles, projectors, and video conferencing equipment.
DokuWiki is the wiki software we use to maintain our internal knowledge base. This program provides the framework for the sharing of knowledge and forms and allowing that knowledge and those forms to be used and reused across the agency. We chose DokuWiki because it’s free, easy to use, has built in security features to limit viewing and/or editing, contains a lot of other great features, and it produces a professional looking site.
We utilize document imaging software developed by Butler County. While the software itself was free, we did pay Butler County to come install it, and the required scanners and server set us back a small bundle, but the cost has been well worth it, in terms of space and time savings.
I can’t decide which of these programs I like more. You can use these programs to create PDF files from any document you can print. CutePDF seems easier to use, but PDFCreator allows you to create additional file types like TIFFs or JPGs.
We use TrueCrypt to encrypt confidential information on flash drives. When you’re in an environment where loosing confidential information becomes national news, you need a program like TrueCrypt. If your flash drives came with encryption software, then you’re probably all set, but if you have a variety of flash drives (each with their own software), and you want to standardize on one program, or if you don’t have encryption software, you need TrueCrypt.
Windows Media Encoder is available as a free download from Microsoft. We’ve used this program to create short computer training videos and to record a Rights and Responsibilities PowerPoint presentation (along with our Director reading this presentation) that is played to all the clients.
MWSnapMwSnap is a free screen capture program that allows you to capture the whole desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen. You can even save your screen captures as BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG and GIF formats, with selected color depth and quality settings. Great for creating program documentation or instructions.
Notepad++ is a great open source notepad replacement. It’s optimized for source code editing with Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding.
CMS Made Simple is a great open source website content management system (CMS). This tool makes it very easy to create a professional looking site that has your look and feel rather than the cookie-cutter sites a lot of CMS’ create. There’s lots of free add-ons so you can use the tool for a variety of content, and give non-technical users the ability to maintain that content.
LimeSurvey is an Open Source PHP web application to develop, publish, and collect responses to online & offline surveys. We’ve used LimeSurvey on our public web site to gather opinions and information for the Director’s Association, and we use it on our internal web site to gather feedback from staff.
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Why DJFS.org isn’t a Wiki |
Those who know me and my passion for sharing information and resources 
may be wondering why DJFS.org isn’t a wiki. Here’s my response (in no particular order).
That’s not to say, however, that you can’t contribute to DJFS.org. See our Contribute page for information about sharing your information and resources!
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Doing More with More |
Economics and how we allocate limited resources seems to be at the top of every one’s mind these days. How to do more with less and all of that. But “doing more with less” is not the Information Technology way. Sure, we may have tighter budgets and maybe even fewer staff, but we still strive to evolve and develop new and improved information technology resources.
So, given our economic client how can we “do more with more”? That is, how can we develop new and improved technological resources that help our agencies fulfill their mission statements and reach their goals? That’s a question I’ll be trying to examine over several posts:
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GovLoop - Facebook for Government IT Employees |
I just came across an article in Government Technology magazine about GovLoop.
GovLoop is a social network (like Facebook) for Government 2.0. GovLoop allows you to create or comment on blogs, join discussions and special interest groups, view upcoming government IT related events, etc.
From Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop:
I created this online network as a way to connect government employees. Personally, I have founded and participated in many government associations and I have found them very rewarding. Additionally, I have searched and utilized the government websites, good government sites, and professional groups.
I wanted an online forum to connect all my various groups and to connect with government employees across agencies. I wanted an informal place where people could gather, share their ideas, and ask other questions. A place that could serve as a repository for both current and future government employees as they start and grow in their career.
As thus, GovLoop is born. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know how we can take it to the next level.
Join today if you are:
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Windows SteadyState |
Microsoft offers a free program called Windows SteadyState that’s great for use in Job Stores/One Stops and other shared computers.
What state is your shared computer in at the end of the day?
With Windows SteadyState for XP or Vista, once you have everything set up the way you want it, you can share the computer and rest easy. Any changes a user might make to the configuration or hard disk can be undone by simply restarting the machine.
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Community Source Software |
I recently came across this article from EDUCAUSE: “Open Source 2007: How Did This Happen?“ The focus of the article is about something they refer to as Community Source Software. Community Source Software is software developed by a consortium of like minded institutions. This differs from more traditional Open Source Software which may have a broader appeal and development base than Community Source Software projects.
The article describes the aggregation of will that’s necessary with Community Source application development projects as,
A few adopting institutions essentially ‘pre-buy’ the software by contributing staff or cash to the development effort. They gain some direct input into the software design and express their will through an inter-institutional consortium, board, or project office.
The article goes on to describe potential obstacles to Community Source including weakening of will, bad politics, and lean budget years.
In order Community Source software projects to succeed, the participants must find like-minded partners who share a similar vision and timeline. It requires a cooperative mindset, disciplined choices among staff, and leaders’ consistent vision that the value of partnering over the long term exceeds the easy short-term gains of defecting to local priorities.
Several examples of Open Source/Community source software are included.