[OGRUG] " departments are concerned about security" [Forked from: "Centres of ExpeRtise within GOC"]

[Joseph Potvin]

RE: "this issue may make a few directors nervous"

Yup. And they should be much more nervous when they are not allowed to
independently validate the integrity of software that GC and Canadians
depend upon. (Unfortunately, many rely on supplier marketing materials,
confident proposal text, and f2f meetings with suppliers.)

Here's another "oldie" (from 1999): this one is an explanation for a
Washington State Dept of Transportation office about why bridge engineering
software ought to be fre/libre/open:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/eesc/bridge/alternateroute/about.htm


Joseph Potvin
Executive Director, Xalgorithms Foundation
Mobile: 819-593-5983
jpotvin at xalgorithms.org
https://www.xalgorithms.org

On Tue, Aug 9, 2016 at 4:28 PM, Abdool Yasseen <abdool.yasseen at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Good to know, and glad others have looked into this further, and developed
> documentation.
> Still, I can imagine how this issue may make a few directors nervous.
>
>
> Abdool
>
> On 9 August 2016 at 16:19, Joseph Potvin <jpotvin at xalgorithms.org> wrote:
>
>> Abdool,
>>
>> See: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?OpenSourceSecurityStrategy
>>
>> (Co-authors of that summary are listed at the bottom of the entry.)
>>
>> Joseph Potvin
>> Executive Director, Xalgorithms Foundation
>> Mobile: 819-593-5983
>> jpotvin at xalgorithms.org
>> https://www.xalgorithms.org
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 9, 2016 at 3:43 PM, Abdool Yasseen <abdool.yasseen at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hay Alex,
>>>
>>> Re: the use of R in government.
>>>
>>> I know some departments are concerned about security, and are hesitant to
>>> make the shift. Also, the current knowledge base for R varies from place
>>> to
>>> place, like Tyler said. This will definitely be changing in the future,
>>> because R is the dominant paradigm in most analytic based university
>>> shops,
>>> of which their alumni will be future government employees.
>>>
>>> The only analogy I can think about is at the Institute for Clinical
>>> Evaluative Sciences (ICES) which didn't have R available, up till a few
>>> years back. They were really concerned about data access and only support
>>> an internally contained html-version of R (importing packages and the
>>> like
>>> need to be monitored). In light of the ever increasing need for web based
>>> security, I think the use of R in the government should follow suit.
>>>
>>> Just a point to note when thinking about applying freeware in institution
>>> settings,
>>>
>>> Abdool
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 9 August 2016 at 11:27, jianmin duan <jim201105 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > Dear Alex:
>>> >
>>> > At Duan Pharmaceutical Consulting Inc., we use R for biostatistical
>>> > analysis, PK/PD data analysis and power tests etc.
>>> >
>>> > Best regards,
>>> >
>>> > Jianmin
>>> >
>>> > On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 2:05 PM, Alex Demarsh <alexdemarsh at gmail.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >
>>> > > Hey folks -
>>> > >
>>> > > Not sure if this is on-topic for this list, but I've become curious
>>> about
>>> > > the prevalence of R use in the Government of Canada (GOC) -
>>> particularly
>>> > > how many analytic teams are using R as their primary language.
>>> > >
>>> > > So, if you're a member of (or just know of) such an "R Shop", could
>>> you
>>> > let
>>> > > me know? Any information on specific tasks or level of expertise
>>> would
>>> > be a
>>> > > helpful addition.
>>> > >
>>> > > Many thanks in advance,
>>> > >
>>> > > Alex Demarsh
>>> > > Epidemiologist/Biostatistician, Public Health Agency of Canada
>>> > >
>>> > >         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>> > >
>>> > > _______________________________________________
>>> > > R-UG-Ottawa mailing list
>>> > > R-UG-Ottawa at r-project.org
>>> > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-ug-ottawa
>>> > >
>>> >
>>> >         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > R-UG-Ottawa mailing list
>>> > R-UG-Ottawa at r-project.org
>>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-ug-ottawa
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *Abdool S. Yasseen III PhD(c)*
>>> Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>> "A powerful will can cure, where doubt will end in failure" :  Franz
>>> Anton
>>> Mesmer
>>> "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" : Yogi
>>> Berra
>>>
>>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> R-UG-Ottawa mailing list
>>> R-UG-Ottawa at r-project.org
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-ug-ottawa
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> *Abdool S. Yasseen III PhD(c)*
> Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
> __________________________________________________________________
> "A powerful will can cure, where doubt will end in failure" :  Franz Anton
> Mesmer
> "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" : Yogi Berra
>

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