Press Coverage and OSFA Statements

 

What OSFA Members are saying: 

Open Source for America - Open Government Directive Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies  

"Open Source For America (OSFA) applauds and supports the initiatives outlined in the Open Government Directive and the Obama Administration's continued push to make government more transparent, collaborative and participatory. While not explicitly addressing the use of open source software, we are pleased to see such a detailed plan -- encompassing open formats and open standards -- with firm deadlines attached to hold departments and agencies accountable for continuing to create an open government. Open government will enable extensive public and employee engagement and promote innovation, dramatic cost savings, and with the use of open source technologies the U.S. government can see increased improvements to their bottom line." -  Chris Hankin

 

Open Source for America - Department of Defense provides guidance on the use of open source software

"There has been significant recent momentum for the increased adoption of open source solutions in the federal government, and the memorandum from the U.S. Department of Defense providing guidance on the use of open source software in the DoD represents a major tipping point that we hope will break down many of the barriers for open source adoption in Defense agencies and also increase the DoD's contribution back to the open source community. We're pleased that the DoD clarified misconceptions and used the memo to highlight the many advantages open source offers the government, including better security, lower total cost of ownership, rapid innovation, faster deployment and lack of vendor lock-in. We hope to see other agencies across the federal government release this type of guidance."  - David Thomas

Open Source for America - WhiteHouse.org is using a PHP/LAMP software stack with the Open Source content management system Drupal for its Recovery.org Web site

"This is great news not only for the use of open source software, but the validation of the open source development model. The Whitehouse's technical leadership and adoption of community-based software provides a great example for the rest of the government to follow. Open Source is a secure and cost effective way to meet the constantly changing needs of government agencies and our vibrant community of Open Source companies have the resources to get the job done at any scale. Open source software has the added advantages of built-in security fundamentals with constant review during its entire life cycle. We look forward to to collaborating with the Whitehouse as they interact and join with the wider open source community to potentially release source code back to society." - John Scott


"In his first official speech after the inauguration, President Barack Obama promised to create a government that was more transparent, open, and accountable. By choosing open source software as the defining technology of whitehouse.gov, it is clear that the President means business.

This is great news not only for the use of open source software, but the validation of the open source development model. The White House's adoption of community-based software provides a great example for the rest of the government to follow. Open Source is a secure and cost effective way to meet the needs of government agencies, and our vibrant community of Open Source companies and contributors have the resources to get the job done at any scale." - Bill Vass

News Coverage: 

 

 

NetworkWorld - Celebrating a Year of Pushing the Feds Toward Open Source

To celebrate a year of championing the use of open source software in the U.S. government, Open Source for America has created an awards program to recognize those who took up the challenge.

 

OStatic - Why Businesses Need to Work More Together On Open Source

If you've kept up with studies done on the development of the Linux kernel, such as the one discussed here, you know that Linux advances over time thanks to prodigious amounts of co-working on the part of large enterprises. IBM, Red Hat, Oracle and many other companies make huge contributions, and sometimes expensive ones. They do that, of course, because Linux is a rising tide that lifts their own boats. Across the broad spectrum of open source software, though, there ought to be much more co-development and shared contributions on the part of businesses.

 

SD Times - Pushing the Government Toward Open Source

 

A new not-for-profit lobbying group, Open Source for America (OSFA), is knocking on United States federal agency doors and reminding purchasers that there are often open-source alternatives available to satisfy government software needs.

William Vass, member of the board of advisors at OSFA, said the group's goal is "to get open source into the procurement process. [Open source] is doing well in the intelligence community and in the Department of Defense, but the rest of the government is schizophrenic in its use of open source.”

 

The H Online - OSFA Joins OSI in Refutting IIPA's Attack on Open Source

Open Source for America (OSFA), an organisation created to promote the use of open source in government, has denounced the IIPA's "Special 301" call saying it is irresponsible and misleading. The International Intellectual Property Association (IIPA) had called for the US Trade Representative to place countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and India, on a "Special 301" watch list, normally reserved for dictatorships or repressive regimes, because the governments advocate the use of open source. OSFA say that this request is "both irresponsible and misleading in its characterisation of OSS".

 

Oregon Association of Government IT Managers Winter Conference

Today (Jan 28), OAGITM presented its new web site to its membership gathered for the Winter 2010 conference.  The association has chosen to move to an open source platform. Members representing 17 counties and cities and seven state government agencies attended the morning session.

OAGITM president Kevin Potter cited lower cost, easy maintenance, greater accessibility, and rich features as the reason to move the their non-profit organization's site to the open source content management system Drupal.  "We're open to open source" stated Kevin Potter.  "Our members need to look a the most cost effective tools we can find and we're looking at open source to solve some of our information technology challenges."

Deb Bryant, representing Oregon State University and the Open Source Lab (OSL) at the meeting said "State and local government has been very open to exploring open source solutions.  Like many counties and small towns across the country, we're have lost important revenue that once supported essential infrastructure.  The Oregon spirit lives in the resourcefulness of these public service managers."

The new web site will be hosted and maintained by OSU OSL at no cost to the non-profit association.  OSL is also home the the Drupal CMS project along with many other significant non-profit open source projects such as Linux and Apache.

OAGITM web site: http://www.oagitm.org/
OSUOSL web site: osuosl.org

 

Linux Magazine - U.S. Open Source for Open Government 

In December the U.S. White House set guidelines for an open and transparent administration. The Open Source for America (OSFA) organization is now following up with tips for a governmental move to free software.

The Open Source for America organization is the largest lobbying group for free software in the U.S. Its members include Canonical, the Debian project, the GNOME Foundation, Google, KDE e.V., Novell, and Red Hat. Subsequent to the White House guidelines, the OSFA has set its own to help the individual governmental bodies in their move to free software by April 2010.

The relatively short and easy-to-understand document divides its recommendations into the categories Participation, Collaboration, and Transparency. In particular, "Agency procurement rules should explicitly reject preferences for particular products or development models" and instead "agencies should provide a means to receive unsolicited suggestions for free and open source software tools." They should also use platform-independent online tools as much as possible and provide free licensing for internally developed applications to "facilitate sharing" across agencies.

The complete Proposed Guidelines for Open Government Plans are on the OSFA homepage. President Obama had already set a good example in October 2009 by converting the White House portal to Drupal.

 

The Register - Open sourcers aim selves at US gov

Advocates who helped shape a major US government department's policy paper on using open-source in IT projects are stepping up their lobby. Open Source for America plans to push for clear statements on the rules around using open source in government IT across a number of federal departments next year.

Associated Press and Huffington Post - White House opens Web site programming to public 

WASHINGTON — A programming overhaul of the White House's Web site has set the tech world abuzz. For low-techies, it's a snooze – you won't notice a thing. The online-savvy administration on Saturday switched to open-source code for – meaning the programming language is written in public view, available for public use and able for people to edit. http://www.whitehouse.gov

"Security is fundamentally built into the development process because the community is made up of people from all across the world, and they look at the source code from the very start of the process until it's deployed and after," said Terri Molini of Open Source for America, an interest group that has pushed for more such programs.

Personal Democracy Forum - White House Goes Drupal

WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software, as the AP alluded to in its reporting several minutes ago.

Top of page

InfoWorld - Whitehouse.gov could be a springboard for Open Source for America

Whitehouse.gov selection of open source opens the door for OSFA to educate federal government buyers on open source best practices.

In discussing the use of open source at whitehouse.gov, Tim O'Reilly, an adviser with OSFA, wrote, "While open source is already widespread throughout the government, its adoption by the White House will almost certainly give permission for much wider uptake."

Bacon's Rebellion - Whitehouse.gov Switches to Open Source Platform

The White House’s website has switched to the open source Drupal platform. The White House web team decided that they needed a more powerful and flexible online platform. According to online expert Tim O’Reilly the move marks a big win for the open source software movement, which has been trying for years to portray itself as just as safe and reliable as closed source competitors.

“As John Scott of Open Source for America (a group advocating open source adoption by government, to which I am an advisor) noted in an email to me: “This is great news not only for the use of open source software, but the validation of the open source development model. The White House’s adoption of community-based software provides a great example for the rest of the government to follow.”

John is right. While open source is already widespread throughout the government, its adoption by the White House will almost certainly give permission for much wider uptake.”

InformationWeek - White House Uses Open Source To Open Government

The Whitehouse.gov site now runs the open source Drupal content management system, which includes social networking tools that can be used for communications and participatory government.

One of the main reasons for the change was to build more collaboration features into WhiteHouse.gov, according to the Obama administration. In addition to providing content management, Drupal supports blogs, comments, polls, and the ability to create user profiles.

"We wanted to improve the tools used by thousands of people who come to Whitehouse.gov to engage with White House officials, and each other, in meaningful ways," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said in an e-mail. "We now have a technology platform to get more and more voices on the site. This is state-of-the-art technology, and the government is a participant in it."

USA Today - White House opens its website programming to public

White House officials described the change (to open source) as similar to rebuilding the foundation of a building without changing the street-level appearance of the facade. It was expected to make the White House site more secure — and the same could be true for other administration sites in the future.

Top of page

ZDNet - Open source scores small victory at White House

Open source scored a victory at the White House this week with the government’s choice to switch to Drupal for whitehouse.gov.

The U.S. government’s technology team announced that it had selected the open source content management system to make http://www.whitehouse.gov more transparent to consumers and developers.

This will allow programmers to view, inspect and fix the web site’s code, government officials said. The news was reported over the weekend by the Associated Press.

Open Source for America has been pushing Obama’s government to embrace more open choice software as a way to reduce costs and drive open standards for more transparency. Last week, ConsortiumInfo’s Andy Updegrove wrote a blog urging Obama to choose more FOSS.

CMS Wire - Open Source Movement Finds Friends at the White House

Over the weekend, the White House switched from its Bush-era closed source content management system (CMS) to the popular Drupal (news, site) open source platform. The project reflects Drupal's growing acceptance with more sophisticated web operations and the U.S. government's inclination to leverage open source software.

Massachusetts-based Acquia — the relatively young commercial entity started by Drupal project founder, Dries Buyeart, and also one of the founding members of Open Source for America — was on board as a project subcontractor.

O'Reilly Media - Thoughts on the Whitehouse.gov switch to Drupal

Yesterday, the new media team at the White House announced via the Associated Press that whitehouse.gov is now running on Drupal, the open source content management system. That Drupal implementation is in turn running on a Red Hat Linux system with Apache, MySQL and the rest of the LAMP stack. Apache Solr is the new White House search engine.

Top of page

Tech.Blorge - White House goes open source

The Obama team campaigned partially on technology matters and have kept more than a little of their attention there. Now they have revamped the White House Web site and have done it using open source!

For those of you that are wondering, open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software’s source code. That is to say, the source code for the application or site that you see can be downloaded and edited by any programmer, though for their own purposes; a member of the public cannot, for example, download the WhiteHouse.gov site, change all the names, and put it back up in a changed form. They can, however, download the software and adapt the code for their own purposes, or add to the code to improve it.

Boing Boing - The White House switch to open source: Tim O'Reilly's thoughts

Over the weekend, the White House new media team announced (via AP) that whitehouse.gov now runs on the open source content management system Drupal. Tim O'Reilly puts this news into context:

This move is obviously a big win for open source. As John Scott of Open Source for America (a group advocating open source adoption by government, to which I am an advisor) noted in an email to me: "This is great news not only for the use of open source software, but the validation of the open source development model. The White House's adoption of community-based software provides a great example for the rest of the government to follow."

John is right. While open source is already widespread throughout the government, its adoption by the White House will almost certainly give permission for much wider uptake. Particularly telling are the reasons that the White House made the switch.

International Business Times - White House web site goes open source

The Obama administration has switched to open-source code for its official website - meaning the programming language is written in a way that is available to the public and also for people to edit it.

The programming overhaul of the official portal for the White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov) allows thousands of people to individually pick codes apart for a chance to offer upgrades, tweaks and additions that would help improve security.

"Security is fundamentally built into the development process because the community is made up of people from all across the world, and they look at the source code from the very start of the process until it's deployed and after," said Terri Molini of Open Source for America, an interest group that has pushed for more such programs.

Top of page

InformationWeek - DOD Says Yes To More Open Source

Open source in the government and military isn't a new thing; governance is one of open source's biggest target markets, so to speak. It's still all the more heartening to hear the Department of Defense come out strongly in favor of open source, and to recommend using more of it whenever possible.

Tech Daily Dose - DoD Memo Offers Open Source Guidance

Defense Department Deputy Chief Information Officer David Wennergren on Tuesday issued the Pentagon's much-anticipated memorandum clarifying the use and development of open source software. The memo dated Oct. 16 notes that there are many open source programs in operational use by the department today, in both classified and unclassified environments, but there have been misconceptions and misinterpretations of the existing laws, policies and regulations that deal with the technology. Read the memo here (PDF).

There has been significant recent momentum for the increased adoption of open source solutions in the federal government, and the memo from DoD represents "a major tipping point," said David Thomas, principal at Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti and spokesman for Open Source for America. He said his group hopes Wennergren's action will help break down roadblocks for open source adoption in defense agencies and increase the DoD's contribution back to the open source community.

NetworkWorld - DoD: open source as good as proprietary software

The Department of Defense Tuesday clarified its stance on open source software saying it is equal to commercial software in almost all cases and by law should be considered by the agency when making technology purchase decisions.

The memo was not a policy statement but instead a clarification and guidance on the use of open source software (OSS) within the agency. It was issued by David Wennergren, deputy CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

The Hill - Defense Department wants more open-source software

Speaking of open-source software (see today's earlier post about the White House adopting open-source), the Department of Defense is also exploring ways to use open-source programs to as a way to be more efficient.

David Wennergren, the DoD's acting chief information officer, released a memo clarifying how the department can utilize open-source software, which the DoD has been trying to use for some time. "Unfortunately, there have been misconceptions and misinterpretations of the existing laws, policies and regulations that deal with software and apply to OSS (open-source software), that have hampered effective DoD use and development of OSS."

Top of page

New York Times.com - Open-Source Backers March on Washington

Look out, lobbyists: Here come the open-source zealots. Some of the world’s largest technology companies have banded together in a bid to push open-source software on the United States government. They’ve formed a group called Open Source for America, which seeks to make sure that government agencies at least consider open-source software as an option in their buying decisions. The big, rather timely pitch behind this move is that open-source applications can help save the government money...

Infoworld.com - What's new with Open Source for America?

Nearly three months after Open Source for America's debut, I was interested to hear about the group's progress, successes, and challenges. Recent progress has centered on the definition of 11 OSFA working groups in alphabetical order: Acquisitions and Competition; Cybersecurity; Education; Elections and Voting Technology; Energy and Transportation; Geospatial; Healthcare; Marketing; Military; State and Local; and Transparency.

LinuxInsider - FOSS vs. the Winged Monkeys: Q&A With Open Source for America's Chris Lundberg

"I've got this mental image of technological progress being a band marching down a yellow brick road, beset by authoritarian governments, secrecy, poor information distribution and deceit at every turn -- the winged monkeys, as it were. Open source, and more generally open access, gives us some arrows to fire back with," Lundberg, cofounder and CTO of Democracy In Action and partner for WiredForChange, told LinuxInsider.

Linux.com - Open Source for America Promotes FOSS for Government

As the US struggles with a continuing recession, both the private and public sectors are looking for ways to cut or mitigate operating costs, particularly in the arena of information technology...

Tectonic.com - A New Voice for Open Source in Government

I'm pleased to report this morning on the formation of a new advocacy group for the use of free and open source software in the U.S. Government. I'm also pleased to have been asked to serve on its Board of Advisors, along other proponents of free and open source software, such as Roger Burkhard, Dawn Meyerriecks, Eben Moglen, Tim O'Reilly, Simon Phipps, Mark Shuttleworth, Michael Tiemann, Bill Vass, and Jim Zemlin...


Top of page

 

Slashdot.org - New Coalition To Promote OSS To Feds

LinuxScribe writes "Red Hat, Mozilla, Novell, Oracle, and Sun are among the 50-plus member Open Source for America coalition that will be officially announced today by Tim O'Reilly at OSCON. The OSFA will be a strong advocate for free and open source software, and plans to boost US Federal government support and adoption of FOSS...

BizJournals.com - Red Hat, NCSU join movement to get feds to embrace Open Source

The nation’s leaders in open source software, including Raleigh-based Red Hat and North Carolina State University’s Center for Open Software Engineering, have joined forces to promote and lobby for the technology with the federal government...

CIO.com - Group Will Push Open Source in US Gov't

*Also published on ITWorld.com & ComputerWorld.com -- Open-source software needs a higher profile in Washington, D.C., according to a group of about 50 organizations and companies that launched a new campaign to educate U.S. government agencies about the benefits of open source...

Top of page

CNET News.com - Open-source allies woo U.S. government

Several open-source software companies and many other allies have banded together in a consortium called Open Source for America to try to persuade the U.S. government to use more of the collaboratively developed software, to participate in its development, and help its practitioners work with the government better...

Internet News.com - Open Source Leaders Team Up to Seek More Clout in Government

Is open source good for America? A group of over 70 leading open source vendors thinks so, and they've now formed an effort to lobby Washington and to promote open source for government use... 

Information Week - Red, White And Blue -- And Open

The group's name: Open Source for America. The group's mission: revolutionize the way we govern ourselves, from IT departments on outwards. Or at least just the IT departments... One of the sentences in their charter is "Raise awareness and create understanding among federal government leaders in the executive and legislative branches about the values and implications of open source software". Those two italicized words are the giveaway for me: open source participation means you also embrace transparency of decision-making and design.

NextGov.com - Companies, academics form coalition to promote open-source software

Leaders of the open-source movement announced on Wednesday that they have formed a coalition to promote support of and adoption by federal agencies of the nonproprietary computer software...

Top of page

SD Times.com - Coalition pushes open-source use in government

When the going gets transparent, the transparent get organized. This morning, the Open Source for America (OSFA) organization was unveiled in San Jose at OSCON. This new organization brings together companies, academic institutions and individuals for the promotion of open-source software in government...

The H Open - Open Source For America coalition formed

A new coalition of seventy open source companies, academic institutions, communities, groups and individuals has been created to promote open source software to the US Federal government. The group, Open Source For America, plans to act as a central advocate for using open source and for participating in its creation. It aims to help change policies and practices, coordinating communities in collaborating with the government on technology and raising awareness of open source within the government...

ARS Technica.com - New advocacy group pushes OSS for the USA 

A diverse coalition of open source software vendors, universities, and nonprofit groups have come together to encourage broader adoption of open source software in government IT...

Search EnterpriseLinux.com - Open source for America launched

NEWS - In conjunction with the O'Reilly Open Source Conference, more than 70 public and private organizations and individuals joined to announce the formation of Open Source for America...

Top of page

Government Computer News.com - Coalition to promote greater use of open-source apps in government

Open-source software continues to make inroads into the federal government, and a new organization to promote open-source applications has been established...

IT Knowledge Exchange.com - DIY government: Open source for America

Today, in conjunction with the O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON) in San Jose, Calif., more than 70 companies, academic institutions, communities, related groups and individuals announced the formation of Open Source for America, an organization that will serve as a unified voice for the promotion of open source software in the U.S. Federal Government arena...

The News and Observer - Open source advocates rally

The open-source movement is closing ranks. On Wednesday, more than 70 companies, organizations and individuals -- including Raleigh-based Red Hat and centers within N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill -- announced they are working together to promote the federal government's adoption of open-source technology...

CMSWire - Open Source for America: Change We Can Believe In?

When the new administration at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW boasted transparency, they weren't necessarily talking about open source. But some people, a group called Open Source for America for instance, thinks that government agencies should at least consider open source software as an option in their buying decisions ...

Top of page

InfoWorld - Open Source for America sans zealots

It's Friday, so maybe I shouldn't worry too much about this. But Dana Blankenhorn's comments based on Ashlee Vance's post about Open Source for America (OSFA) is off the mark.

Blankenhorn takes Vance to task for one line in the roughly 425-word story. Anyone that's read Vance in the past knows that "here come the open-source zealots" is, well, a sensational-sounding statement, but nothing more. Vance teamed up with open source "zealots" (used in the positive sense of the word) Dave Rosenberg and Matt Asay for Open Season podcasts, so Vance is hardly a person I'd consider anti-open source.

CNET News - NASA takes open source into space

Open-source software has been making inroads into U.S. federal agencies for years, most notably in January when the U.S. Department of Defense set up an internal forge to host open-source software for use by the government.

Now NASA, not to be outdone, has created its own open-source software repository, with a diverse array of software available "as an essential response to the needs of NASA missions."

News & Observer - Open source advocates rally

The open-source movement is closing ranks. On Wednesday, more than 70 companies, organizations and individuals -- including Raleigh-based Red Hat and centers within N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill -- announced they are working together to promote the federal government's adoption of open-source technology.

eWeek - Open source lobbying group emerges

A lobbying group has been launched by more than 70 companies, academic institutions, and communities, to promote open source software as a "transparent and cost-effective option" for U.S. government agencies. "Open Source for America" counts AMD, Canonical, Google, Novell, Oracle, and Red Hat among its members.

Top of page

The Register - Open source unites for US government dollars

OSCON -- Billions of dollars and people hours are spent each year to lobby US politicians over legislation and lucrative government contracts. Telcos, hardware, and closed-source software companies are not strangers to this game.

CNET - Open source allies woo US government

Several open-source software companies and many other allies have banded together in a consortium called Open Source for America to try to persuade the U.S. government to use more of the collaboratively developed software, to participate in its development, and help its practitioners work with the government better.

ADT Magazine - Open Source for America Kicks Off with Broad Support

Open-source software continues to make inroads into the federal government, and a new organization to promote open source applications has been established.

Open Source for America is a coalition of more than 70 companies, academic institutions, communities of interest and related groups that will advocate for greater acceptance of the use of open source software in government IT systems.

TMC.Net - Red Hat, Oracle, Sun to Promote Open Source to U.S. Government

Yours Truly has often joked that the open source – or “open innovation” movement, as it’s sometimes called – sometimes resembles a quasi-religious cult. Now, however, it’s starting to resemble a political action committee. Open Source for America is an alliance of more than 50 companies (including Red Hat, Oracle and Sun), technology industry leaders, associations, various non-governmental organizations, communities and academic/research institutions.

Top of page

Desktop Linux.com - Open source lobbying group emerges

A lobbying group has been launched by more than 70 companies, academic institutions, and communities, to promote open source software as a "transparent and cost-effective option" for U.S. government agencies. "Open Source for America" counts AMD, Canonical, Google, Novell, Oracle, and Red Hat among its members.

InternetNews.com - Open Source Seeks More Clout in Washington

Is open source good for America? A group of over 70 leading open source vendors thinks so, and they've now formed an effort to lobby Washington and to promote open source for government use.

The new group comes at a critical time for the U.S. government as stimulus funds begin to flow and as the new administration aims to open up the government to become more transparent. Open Source for America isn't specifically targeting stimulus funding, but it is aiming to make open source an issue and a key principle for how the U.S. government uses IT.

Spin Valley Post - Open Source for America: The New Government Accountability

Open Source for America’s Thomas said, “Technologies enabled by software freedoms can help make government IT deployment more secure, more cost-effective, faster to deploy, with greater privacy and the ability to help eliminate vendor lock-in.”

Nevertheless, lobbying will be no easy feat as smaller open source companies will have to jockey for position against Microsoft during requests for proposals. Furthermore, in the past government officials have expressed security concerns with open source code. Critics argue that exposed source code can be examined by attackers and therefore poses a risk. Nevertheless, another argument for exposed code can be made in ensuring security. By moving away from proprietary software models and giving free access to a system’s source code, governments are no longer dependent on a select few contractors for their defense. Instead, an entire programming community can be deployed to defend against attacks.

Information Policy - Lauched Open Source for America

The mission of Open Source for America is to serve as a centralized advocate and to encourage broader U.S. Federal Government support of and participation in free and open source software. Specifically, Open Source for America will: help effect change in policies and practices to allow the federal government to better utilize these technologies; help coordinate these communities to collaborate with the federal government on technology requirements; and raise awareness and create understanding among federal government leaders about the values and implications of open source software.

Top of page

Knowledge Tree - KnowledgeTree Joins Open Source for America in Advocating Open Source in the US Federal Government

KnowledgeTree has taken steps to increase open source software visibility within the Federal government, and looking forward to playing an active role with Open Source for America.

CTO Vision - Open Source for America: A resource for the Gov2.0 CTO

With this post I’d like to tell you a bit more about the coalition Open Source for America and why I believe it is so important for our collective future. I would also like to encourage you to join this coalition yourself. Whether you represent industry, academia, non-profit organizations or are an individual technologist this coalition needs your help and support.

Practical Technology - Open Source for America Launches

It’s about time. Today, July 22nd, Open Source for America, a coalition of more than 60 organizations joined together to advocate open source in the U.S. federal government launched. This comes after decades of Microsoft spending millions every year to encourage the government to buy Microsoft’s proprietary software.

Silicon Florist - Open Source for America: OSU Open Source Lab’s Deb Bryant Named to Steering Committee

Open Source for America: OSU Open Source Lab’s Deb Bryant named to steering committee. While I like to wax on about Portland being the de facto hub of open source, truth of the matter is that—just to the south of us—there’s a literal hub for open source: the Oregon State University Open Source Lab.

Top of page

Ostatic Blog - Open Source for America Has Lofty Goals, Heavy Hitters

The new Open Source for America initiative is starting to get some buzz, with Red Hat, Jaspersoft, Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth, The Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin, and other companies and individuals announcing their participation. Andy Updegrove, who will serve on the project's Board of Advisors, has a good post up explaining project goals. It's aimed at encouraging the use of open source software at the U.S. Federal level, and already has a lot of support.

ReadWriteWeb - Open Source for America: The New Government Accountability

One of the government's key open source projects is actually with the National Security Agency. The agency already employs open source technologies to address multi-level security on government machines through SELinux. SELinux was first released as a modified version of the Linux operating system and has since taken on a life of its own as the NSA works with open source contractors to continue to tweak security. While Linux users were at first suspicious that the NSA might be using the code base to spy on their machines, no back doors were detected in the software. Today, thousands of government employees and Linux users protect their machines using SELinux.

CommonSpace - Mozilla joins Open Source for America

Open source software may not be a cure-all, but it could save billions of dollars, help foster innovation and empower our government to work smarter.

Concretely, the idea is to connect people who know and care about open source with people inside the US government, to help them understand open source and to contribute back. It feels like that can only be a good thing. And, as a Canadian, it’s something I’d like to see happen in other countries also.

A few days before the launch, Mozilla signed on as a founding member of Open Source for America. While Mozilla is global in scope, it seemed important to lend our name to this new initiative. The next question is: how can Mozilla best be involved and contribute? I’d be interested in people’s thoughts.

Top of page

O’Reilly Radar - Five Projects for Open Source for America, and Other Reports from the Open Source Convention

A group of companies, advocacy groups, and open source projects announced Open Source for America at the O'Reilly Open Source convention on Wednesday. Trying to draw as many collaborators as possible into their coalition, they aim to establish a more effective voice supporting the use of free and open source software in the U.S. Federal government environment. Their three overarching goals include two for the government itself--changing its policies and raising awareness--plus one that could help educate and change the organizations that want to inject open source software and practices into government machinery.

Google Public Sector Blog - Apps for America and Routers in Ammo Shells: Open Source and the Public Sector at OSCON 2009

Gunnar ...spoke about a soldier in Iraq who was stuck with radios that couldn't reach the distance between watchtowers in a base. To solve the problem, the soldier built WiFi routers inside ammo shells and used open source software to set up a VOIP network between the towers, increasing the range of his communication tools without waiting months to go through military procurement. "The government is made of people. They're not lazy and they're not stupid, they're just constrained by a broken system." He, along with the other participants in Open Source for America, are working to fix this system by encouraging government and private sector to collaborate using open source software.

Government 2.0 was a major focus of the convention this year, and we can't wait to continue this important conversation over the coming months and at the Gov 2.0 Summit in DC this September.

Straight Thinking - Open Source for America

Open Source for America is a new advocacy group that recently emerged in Washington D.C. Its goal is to promote the use of Open Source Software (OSS) in the government. Prognosoft is now a proud member of the organization, working with other technology companies to make the United States government more accountable and transparent.

With more than 4 million computers (1) used by the federal government, OSS indeed has the potential to provide considerable cost savings to the taxpayer by reducing licensing costs that the government spends on proprietary software. However, a more significant benefit should be an increased transparency for government operations. In addition, we believe that OSS adoption will level the playing field for both small and large businesses, driving more innovation and creating opportunities for small businesses to work with the government.

Rivet Logic Blog - Is America Ready for Open Source?

This time open source isn’t alone. Backed by over 70 groups and powerhouses like Google, Oracle and Red Hat, open source is ready to take on the challenge. It’s no question that the federal government is traditionally known to be a slow moving mammoth in adopting new technologies, and especially resistant when it comes to open source software. What OSFA will hopefully accomplish is to debunk those myths about OSS, and highlight the advantages.

Who knows, the federal government might be ready for a change after all. The 2008 Democratic National Convention already made the plunge by opting for an open source CMS, Silver Stripe. And withall the changes the Obama administration is bringing, the federal government may be taking a step back from its set old ways and view open source with an open mind.

Top of page