Designing Open Projects: Lessons From Internet Pioneers

Witzel, David. "Designing Open Projects: Lessons From Internet Pioneers." IBM Center for The Business of Government, 2012.

From the summary: "Internet-like open projects are now beginning to shape government and nonprofit efforts. One in particular is the Department of Health and Human Service’s Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN), what some call a “health internet.” This project is creatively applying Internet lessons to address a set of particularly thorny health and health care information issues.The NwHIN experience provides a clear example of how lessons from the development of the Internet can help government and nonprofit managers approach their own complex problems.A case study of development of the NwHIN by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is presented to explore how these tips are now being used in a real-world program, and specifically how they may be applied to improve health care in the U.S.

This report will describe the idea of open projects, provide a history of the Internet’s develop­ment, and offer a set of handy tips suggested by its development.These tips are intended to help government and nonprofit leaders design and implement open approaches in the projects they design and manage." Read more