The California Innovation Lab is a sandbox within the state's private cloud where public-sector developers can experiment with, share and reuse open source code and technology in a secure environment. A new website, http://innovate.ca.gov/, provides information about how developers can sign up to participate.
“This is a significant paradigm shift on how the state will approach technology in the future,” said Scott Gregory, the state geographic information officer who is managing the lab with a small team of staffers, told TechWire earlier this year. “I truly believe that by providing an environment for us to start to experiment and develop using open source technology, we’re going to see incredible results.”
State leaders have spent months developing policies and standards for how the lab will work. Users will work on the Redhat Open Shift technology platform residing in CalCloud, the state's private cloud. Work product will be posted on a Github page.
Within the lab, developers can choose from several programming languages, utilize a private database instance, access quickstart templates, and collaborate with others on application development.
Department of Technology officials say the innovation lab is the first of its kind within California state government.
“The Lab is an excellent opportunity for government entities to work in an agile web application development,” said Amy Tong, Department of Technology director and state CIO, in a statement.
The innovation lab is the first major initiative of the Office of Digital Innovation and Technology Engagement, a new office within the Department of Technology announced in February.
This story was originally published by TechWire. Reporting from Brooke Edwards Staggs contributed to this story.
