Wednesday 24 October 2007

It's in: The decision

Having pretty much abandoned this blog as a redundant mechanism for forming my opionion (redundant, because the opinion is formed), the answer can only be that Open Source is not only a good direction to go in, for some projects, and for some people, but is a spectacularly good fit for the project I had in mind (housed now here).

In Healthcare generally, and Radiology specifically, there is a significant number of end-users who would consider themselves technically (in computer terms) adept. That indicates a potential community (and indeed, there are projects already in that space building on that community). The commercial alternatives to an open-source PACS are financially unattractive, and many healthcare institutions, being conservative, would require commercial support. Therein, I think, lies the essential elements of a successful commercial open source project.

Now. That's the easy bit..................