Prioritizing Access and Collaboration
Open Source Software in the World of EMS
At Peak Response, we have made a commitment to developing our technology in the public as open source software. In this post, we will introduce the open source development model, its potential benefits, and how we believe those benefits will add value to our work in the public safety sector. Along the way, we will hopefully also clarify some misconceptions that are commonly held regarding open source software.
Definition of Open Source
With open source software, the source code of the software — the actual text of programming language statements used to instruct the computer what to do — is freely available for anyone to inspect, modify, and use. This freedom facilities the potential for building a community of engaged users and developers that collaborate on the ongoing maintenance, improvement, and innovation of the software. For example, every year thousands of developers from around the world, many from the biggest software companies in the computer industry, contribute new code to the Linux operating system.
Benefits of Open Source & Why People Have an Aversion to It
Even if you’re not familiar with open source software development, it is more likely than not that you interact with open source software on a daily basis, not the least of which is through the web browser you’re using to read this article. All of the most widely used web browsers at the time of this writing- Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge- are either completely composed of, or based in large part upon, open source software. The Linux operating system, first released as open source software in 1991, is today estimated to be running on the servers for over 90% of the top websites on the Internet and on over 70% of the world’s smartphones as the core of the Android phone operating system.
Open source software can be reviewed by those with appropriate technical expertise to ensure that it performs as intended. This leads to more secure and reliable software over time. As the community of users and developers grows, the speed and likelihood of finding bugs and vulnerabilities increases, and the freedom for anyone to modify the software means that fixes and improvements can be developed without necessarily having to wait for a single source of responsibility. Instead, an open source project can delegate the review of new contributions to trusted members of the community, which also helps prevent the injection of malicious code by bad actors.
Open Source for Public Safety & Our Intentions
At Peak Response, we know that, as newcomers to the public safety sector, trust and confidence must be earned and we hope that offering this level of transparency into the software we build is a first step in building that relationship.
The freedom to modify, and not just inspect, open source software is a key aspect that facilitates rapid innovation. Instead of having to take a lowest-common denominator or one-size-fits-all approach, users of open source software with differing or unique needs can customize it for their own use cases. In the public safety sector, where the practices and policies of public safety agencies vary significantly across federal, state and local lines, we think that open source software provides the greatest potential for accommodating these variations. We have chosen an open source license, the legal terms that enforce how the source code is made freely available, that also ensures that any future variations and changes remain open source as well.
Open source software is sometimes also referred to as “free” software, where the “free” is used as in “free speech”, as opposed to, say, “free beer.” While it is true that open source software code itself is available without cost, the reality is that the true cost of deploying, operating, and supporting software is significant. While larger public safety agencies may have the budget, qualified staff and resources to deploy their own copies of open source software, at Peak Response, we hope to build a healthy, sustainable business that provides affordable access to our technology to agencies of any size and budget, through a model known as software-as-a-service (SaaS). As a SaaS provider, it will be upon us to prove that we offer a secure, reliable, and performant service that can handle the needs of the public safety sector.
Another closely related, but not quite the same, topic is the development of open standards. Data exchange standards like NEMSIS and FHIR are laying the foundation for interoperability and seamless inter-organizational data transfer , such as between an emergency first response agency and a destination hospital. While it is exciting to see the collaboration in the industry developing these standards, their implementations remain largely proprietary. Supporting these standards to the highest levels of compliance will be a priority for us at Peak Response, and our implementation will be free to review and to build upon as open source software.
Conclusion
Our ultimate goal at Peak Response is to contribute to the common good by improving public safety with innovative new technology. As recipients of federal prize and grant funding, we feel a sense of responsibility to the public whom we see as the funders and owners of this technology through their tax dollars. By releasing our technology as open source software, we ensure that it remains available for anyone to inspect, modify, and use in perpetuity.
