Feds to host NHIN software code-a-thon
By Mary Mosquera
Friday, July 31, 2009
The Health and Human Services Department will sponsor a
“code-a-thon” Aug. 27 so open source programmers can meet to collaborate on
ways to improve the CONNECT gateway, software that lets organizations access
the Nationwide Health Information Network.
A code-a-thon is typically held by open source communities
so that programmers can collaborate for a day or a weekend on writing code for
specific high priority items for an open source project.
“The code-a-thon gives programmers an opportunity to meet
face to face and get to know each other rather than simply just communicating
by email,” said David Riley, the CONNECT
program lead for the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) program in the Office of
the National Coordinator for Health IT.
More than 20 federal agencies, working under the auspices
of the FHA, helped develop the CONNECT software, which enables agencies as well
as private sector health organizations to exchange health records securely via
the protocols and core services of the NHIN. In April, HHS released a version
of the CONNECT software to the open source community.
The code-a-thon is expected to foster personal connections
and help expand the talent pool of developers that might contribute to the
CONNECT project, according to Brian Behlendorf, an open source advocate and a
contractor on the administration’s Open Government initiative team headed White
House chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra.
Behlendorf is on loan to the CONNECT program for two
months to help define an open source strategy for the portal’s future
development, Riley said at a recent conference. “A code-a-thon can take bright
ideas that don’t yet have that first implementation, or first proof of concept,
and help them get it over the hump,” Behlendorf said.
At the code-a-thon, programmers will be able to write code
to improve bug fixes, adapters, universal client applications, security and
development tools in the CONNECT application. There will also be a discussion
of ways to use the development tools more effectively, the status of security
technical controls and new features available through CONNECT, including source
code control and bug tracking.
