FALLS CHURCH, VA--(Marketwire - March 21, 2011) - The Alembic Foundation today announced its incorporation as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) to design and build Open Source technologies that empower citizens so they can understand, participate in and help guide the services-driven, networked information economy of the 21st century. The Alembic Foundation will define and build technology projects aimed at the difficult challenges inherent in managing personal and private data by organizations of all sizes on behalf of individuals, in a way that empowers those individuals.
The Foundation aims to accomplish this in two ways:
- By serving as a neutral forum to foster collaboration with organizations and individuals from industry, the public and government to confront and solve real-world challenges
- By providing a basic toolset for communities of interest to organize themselves, define their project(s) and determine the relevant governance structure that assures success
"The Alembic Foundation exists for the public good, and to contribute to the public commons through open processes that create open technologies for transformation," said David Riley, Alembic's president. "The Foundation will be tackling projects that will benefit from using open technologies to solve real-life challenges. As our first project, the Alembic Foundation is going to expand on the Federal Health Architecture's (FHA) CONNECT project to create a truly open community that uses Open Source technology for health information exchange."
A Webinar announcing further details about the Alembic Foundation and the Aurion Project will be held on Tuesday, March 22 at 1:00 pm EDT. To register for the Webinar, click https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/722650370.
The Aurion Project: An Evolution of FHA's CONNECT Open Source Project
Alembic's first project, Aurion, is an Open Source software project that will promote health IT interoperability nationwide in accordance with nationally-recognized standards. The direct ancestor to the Aurion Project is the multi-award winning CONNECT program built by FHA under the leadership of the Alembic Foundation's CEO, David Riley, and its chief operating officer, Vanessa Manchester, who previously worked within the FHA program management office.
Riley and Manchester chose Aurion as the initial project of the Alembic Foundation because they believe the Foundation can provide an effective vehicle for the public and private sectors to work together to build upon CONNECT. Supporting this important work through a nonprofit organization expands the ability for organizations of all sizes to contribute to Aurion through development and resources. It also opens more opportunities for organizations to participate in setting the requirements for and influencing the direction of Aurion.
According to Brian Behlendorf, the chief technology officer for the World Economic Forum, "Creating a nonprofit foundation to continue the work started by the federal government is the right thing to do. It allows the project to grow and involve a far larger constituency in its development, with clearer rules of engagement for everyone. Our hope is that this unleashes greater degrees of collaboration and innovation."
Aurion 3.1, released today, is the CONNECT 3.1 codebase rebranded. With the release of Aurion 4.0 on May 3, 2011, the Alembic Foundation will assume a custodial agent role for the development efforts of a robust open community and ecosystem being built around the Aurion platform. After the release of Aurion 4.0, the Aurion community will continue to evolve the software to ensure that it remains a powerful, open source option for a Nationwide Health Information Network compliant gateway.
Alembic Foundation Board of Directors
The Alembic Foundation has named its first three members of the Board of Directors. Over the course of the next year, the board will expand to a total of 15 board members. Current members of the board include:
- David Riley, Chairman of the Board and president of the Alembic Foundation, and former lead to the CONNECT Project under the Federal Health Architecture
- Brian Behlendorf, chief technology officer for the World Economic Forum and long-time open source expert advising the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services, and others
- Jon Teichrow, president of the Mirth Corporation with 25 years' experience at the intersection of technology and healthcare
More information about the Directors' backgrounds can be found at www.alembicfoundation.org.
About the Alembic Foundation
The Alembic Foundation is a nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) dedicated to promoting transformation through disruptive innovation using open processes in open communities to create open technologies that are contributed to the public commons. We aim to make those technologies readily available for use by any and all who want to improve their lives, creating a better future for themselves and others by becoming first class citizens in a services-driven, networked information economy.
For more information about the Alembic Foundation, please visit www.alembicfoundation.org.
About the Aurion Project
Aurion is an open source health information exchange platform that implements the Nationwide Health Information Network standard services and specifications. Aurion is the first project chartered through the Alembic Foundation. It builds upon Aurion's direct ancestor, the multi-award winning CONNECT program built by FHA, to enable the secure exchange of interoperable health information among diverse organizations using a wide variety of technologies. Organizations implementing Aurion as a part of their health information exchange strategy gain the benefits of implementing nationally-recognized standards that enable data exchange with federal agencies as well as with numerous other health IT stakeholders.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Vanessa Manchester
Alembic Foundation
(571) 354-6741