Dozens of programmers with some free time on their hands and the ability to travel to Washington, have
signed up to contribute code and commentary to the open-source federal software that HHS is developing to provide an interface between federal healthcare organizations and the proposed national health information network.
The so-called Connect software was released by HHS in April as open-source code.
HHS put out an invitation to attend a day-long Code-A-Thon for Connect at HHS headquarters, where volunteers are asked to “roll up your sleeves” and work side by side with the Connect development team “on contributing to the Connect solution and progressing the health information technology agenda while gazing over the Washington Monument.” More than 80 have responded to the invitation, according to a now-closed list of volunteers on the Connect Web site.
In addition to developing bug fixes, automated installation and setup tools and other code work, attendees can join a forum on Connect development issues.
