1. Free and Open Source Software at the US Census Bureau and FedStats: Building Shared Statistical Dissemination Systems Lisa Wolfisch US Census Bureau

2. Open Source at the Census Bureau –The Census Bureau has long used open source tools in its IT infrastructure and for application development. –A recent survey identified over 125 packages in use and nine planned for use. Apache, Perl, sendmail, Linux, others Noted reasons for using open source included portability, security, functionality, and stability.

3. The Need for Better Access to Statistics –Several years ago, the Census Bureau recognized a clear lack of support at Census.gov for the novice user who wanted simple statistics. –At the same time, FedStats.gov wanted to include statistical profiles on its site, with data from various agencies, rather than just act as a portal leading to data at other sites. –Could one program satisfy the needs of Census & FedStats? –Yes. In 1999, work began on an application to help the novice user access statistical profiles at both sites.

4. Rapid Development with Open Source –The Census and FedStats teams worked together on a shared database and code base to create a single application. –In six months, there was a stable, production-ready version of the software, configurable to create statistical profiles for the “Census QuickFacts” and “FedStats MapStats” applications.

5. Cooperative Application Development with Open Source –Open source provided portability that allowed Census and FedStats to share a single application yet maintain different hardware platforms. –Robust open source tools used include Perl, the Template Toolkit, Apache, and MySQL.

6. Continued Collaboration and Development –Collaboration continues as these sites attract more users, introducing many to federal statistics for the first time. –The needs of both applications are considered as the code base changes over time. –QuickFacts/MapStats now include City profiles (in cooperation with the Department of Housing and Urban Development) Thematic Maps Deep linking to more data sets at Census, HUD, and other agencies)