TRACK 11: Open Source for Public Health Systems: Making them work
Track Chairs: Sundeep Sahay This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Bob Jolliffe, University of Oslo, Norway

Open source applications potentially can provide effective solutions for developing countries, and present a feasible alternative to properietary systems that have largely yielded limited results on the ground over more than two decades of global efforts in trying to strengthen health information systems. While the potential of open source is acknowledged, there are effective mechanisms that need to be established in order for this potential to be realized and for us to go beyond the hype and rhetoric which tends to surround it. These mechanisms need to be put in place at various levels of the institutional, inter-institutional and software development and implementation teams. For example, government systems of procurement that specify large companies to bid and the use of properietary technologies and standards tend to exclude open source groups and NGOs. In this call, we will like to encourage papers that focus on "making open source systems work" in the context of public health systems in developing countries. Some representative themes which we will like to encourage through this call include:
 
1. Software development models
2. Building user communities
3. Reforms in governmental systems that encourage open source applications
4. Building effective support and maintenance models around open source
5. Creating policy and advoacy frameworks
6. Role off donor community
7. Governance of open source projects
8. The "cloud" alternative
9. Mechanisms and models for building capacity
10. Building e-health architecture

For paper format and submission guidelines please refer to the main conference website.