Total Cost of Ownership

[jqnatividad]

TCO should be a consideration, especially for smaller jurisdictions, who do not have the capacity/budget for expensive solutions.

If the data portal becomes fundamental infrastructure, and the govt starts "dog-fooding" it into their operational workflow and the local civic-hacker community builds solutions on top of it, this functionally locks-in the jurisdiction to the solution.

Apart from the cost of running the service, costs calculations should include:

• ability to configure/customize the data portal without having to sole-source professional services from one vendor
• cost of "optional" features which turn out to become "essential" when the data portal is fully utilized
• switching cost

[technickle]

I agree in principle, but I think this is outside the scope of a functional requirements document, and perhaps more suited to be a part of the guidance in the Selecting the Right Technology section of our Open Data: Getting Started guide.