4 ms·

OpenText is a web pioneer that went a different route to search engine monetization. We can nitpick on exactly how successful they are, but they are undoubtedly

by loumf 13y ago

OpenText is a web pioneer that went a different route to search engine monetization. We can nitpick on exactly how successful they are, but they are undoubtedly big and a website company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Text_Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Text_Corporation

hga 13y ago
The University of Waterloo has long been known as a center of text search excellence. Independent, perhaps, of the OED work (which I used in a smaller Oxford American? English dictionary product, I sure wish I could justify buying the OED :-( ), I remember a talk or paper about a very cool method developed there and/or by one of the companies, I seem to vaguely remember it used patricia tries. And I'm happy to see all that turned into a very successful company, 1 billion revenue and 123 profit FY 11, over 5,000 employees in 2012. But all that said, per Wikipedia, it "is Canada's largest software company", which supports the general point. At least in Canada, we don't see the 1/10 of the American level of success we might expect, although I wouldn't be surprised if the "Canadians" situation looked a lot better if a good expat study was done, over the years I've known a number of top notch Canadian software engineers working here---which itself could be telling. But the country itself, as a big source of computer technological excellence? Sorry....
- loumf 13y ago
  Canada has 1/10th the population of the US. I'm not saying the country is on par with the US, but it's not crazy to think that there's a Canadian company with expertise in government healthcare software. I wouldn't feel better knowing this contract went to one of the many big US government contractors, and wouldn't be surprised to get a similar result.
  - hga 13y ago
    Well, CGI Federal started as the civilian part of American Management Systems (AMS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Management_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Management_Systems) in 2004, so it's kind of both (I was in a national security unit of AMS that got sold to the US firm CACI, although I declined to make that jump). CGI Federal is (at least now) responsible for CMS.gov and Medicare.gov. I can attest that the latter site's claims and Plan D (prescription plan selection) parts work well, even if they're a bit clunky. So sole-sourcing this part of Healthcare.gov to CGI Federal was not dumb at all. What was and still is dumb is having a bunch of unqualified federal bureaucrats and political appointees manage the whole thing (HHS s CMS and on up to the White House) play the role of integrator including integration testing (as is common in these political waterfall projects, why even bother when test failures have no effect on rollout???). CGI Federal? A Google/Facebook/Lisper dream team? You can't win when your customer makes major changes throughout the process, right through the week before launch. And apparently ignores every warning everyone makes, not to mention those failed tests.

by loumf 13y ago

hga 13y ago

The University of Waterloo has long been known as a center of text search excellence. Independent, perhaps, of the OED work (which I used in a smaller Oxford American? English dictionary product, I sure wish I could justify buying the OED :-( ), I remember a talk or paper about a very cool method developed there and/or by one of the companies, I seem to vaguely remember it used patricia tries. And I'm happy to see all that turned into a very successful company, 1 billion revenue and 123 profit FY 11, over 5,000 employees in 2012. But all that said, per Wikipedia, it "is Canada's largest software company", which supports the general point. At least in Canada, we don't see the 1/10 of the American level of success we might expect, although I wouldn't be surprised if the "Canadians" situation looked a lot better if a good expat study was done, over the years I've known a number of top notch Canadian software engineers working here---which itself could be telling. But the country itself, as a big source of computer technological excellence? Sorry....

loumf 13y ago
Canada has 1/10th the population of the US. I'm not saying the country is on par with the US, but it's not crazy to think that there's a Canadian company with expertise in government healthcare software. I wouldn't feel better knowing this contract went to one of the many big US government contractors, and wouldn't be surprised to get a similar result.
- hga 13y ago
  Well, CGI Federal started as the civilian part of American Management Systems (AMS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Management_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Management_Systems) in 2004, so it's kind of both (I was in a national security unit of AMS that got sold to the US firm CACI, although I declined to make that jump). CGI Federal is (at least now) responsible for CMS.gov and Medicare.gov. I can attest that the latter site's claims and Plan D (prescription plan selection) parts work well, even if they're a bit clunky. So sole-sourcing this part of Healthcare.gov to CGI Federal was not dumb at all. What was and still is dumb is having a bunch of unqualified federal bureaucrats and political appointees manage the whole thing (HHS s CMS and on up to the White House) play the role of integrator including integration testing (as is common in these political waterfall projects, why even bother when test failures have no effect on rollout???). CGI Federal? A Google/Facebook/Lisper dream team? You can't win when your customer makes major changes throughout the process, right through the week before launch. And apparently ignores every warning everyone makes, not to mention those failed tests.