Homeland security, of all organizations, worried that simply pushing government agencies to release 20% of their software as open source, without understanding how that might be most useful to the. Postgresql, open source software bringing security. Open source technologies, communities, and methodologies are playing an increasingly important role in international governments and policymaking. According to the general services administration gsa github dashboard, there are.
A british government agency whose mission is to help reduce the cost of government is launching a series of nine it proof of concept trial projects using opensource software, including linux. Adoption of free and opensource software by public institutions. The australian government information management office agimo has released a summary of the findings of its investigations into the use of free and open source software foss within federal. Interview with david wheeler on open source in government. And one of those initiatives promised an opensource software policy that will support improved access to custom software code developed for the federal government. They began releasing software in the 1990s long before the federal source code. The paper presents a 2x3 matrix, where disclosure for security and competition are assessed for three types of systems or software. Government is committed to improving the way federal agencies buy.
Open source software for open government agencies carlo daffara jesus m. Wheeler, a longtime leader in advising and working with the us government on issues related to open source software. In fact, its a policy that should have been passed a long time ago, but its not quite what most of us mean. Open source software is a collaborative way to develop source code the. Homeland security, of all organizations, worried that simply pushing government agencies to release 20% of their software as open source. As agencies across the federal government take steps to improve access to their source code, the amount of available federal open source software will grow. Software is everywhere at lawrence livermore national laboratory. The code is often written collaboratively, and it can be downloaded, used and. Why agencies pick opensource case management software. With opensource software, however, government agencies can mutualize, that is, coordinate and share, the development and implementation of their it solutions in a manner that ensures an acrossthe. Serve as the community leader in driving code reuse and open source development. Adoption of free and opensource software by public. Open source software faq dod cio department of defense. The bill of free software v5, mandating oss in all federal government agencies and companies in which the state is the majority stockholder, was reintroduced as.
Gonzalezbarahona the theme of open government that pervades this volume depends on drawing participation. Over 500 german government agencies using open source. The recent policy change was aimed at reducing the cost of custom software purchases by allowing government agencies to share resources. The us government and opensource software linux journal.
Github and government github helps government build. In march the white house issued a blog post detailing their intentions to bring the benefits of open source software to the government, and today they released the federal source code policy, a. Governments using opengovs budgeting and planning solutions have seen a 50% reduction in the time spent creating the budget. One year after the german federal ministry of the interior agreed to a partnership with ibm to supply opensource software on new computers to federal, state and local governments as well as other. Although open source software consumption in government is strong, the next phase is for agencies to contribute to the projects they care about most. Using open source software may unlock a wider base of prospective it talent to government agencies. Leveraging american ingenuity through reusable and open. Departments choosing free software simply because they believe it will save lots of money in obvious ways are likely to be disappointed, and that. Open source software institute is a membershipbased, nonprofit 501 c6 organization established in 2001 that promotes the development and implementation of open source software solutions within us. Government budgeting and planning software opengov. Government offices are the latest arena for open source software, a movement launched two decades ago by boston area hackers and hobbyists irked by the domination of proprietary. Us government now has an official open source software policy. Regardless of whether the use of open source software in government is mandated, wheeler said the department is committed to adhering to open standards.
A theory of disclosure for security and competitive. Open source software and the department of defense. The government of kerala, india, announced its official support for freeopensource software in its state. Agencies use github to engage developers and collaborate with the public on open source, open data and open government efforts. Project open data is a collection of committed code, tools, and case studies to help agencies adopt the u. Californias government operations agency recently launched the. Keralas governments support for free software in 2001 is perhaps the earliest instance of a government supporting the use of free software. Four myths about open source in government contributed. The rise of open source use across state and local. As an example, we have seen an increased acceptance of opensource. Sharing source code between different parts of the government makes a lot of sense. Open source viewed as positive by government agencies.
Github even renders common formats like text, csv, pdf, geospatial. Government agencies have shown a firm commitment to implement new, improved, and costeffective it solutions. Nine british government agencies to test opensource. Government it offices now have access to a vast range of open source software resources and developers since github gained fedramp operating authority for its enterprise cloud. The croatian government adopted an open source software policy and issued the following guidelines for developing and using open source software in the government institutions. How open source differs to open standards open source is a way of developing and distributing software. Government is committed to improving the way federal agencies buy, build, and deliver information technology it and software. Open source software is defined by the department of defense as software for which the humanreadable source code is available for use, study, reuse, modification, enhancement, and re. Government agencies evaluate open source it world canada. This is fundamentally changing the way government agencies are solving problems. Introduction open source software oss is increasingly being acknowledged as a viable alternative to commercial.
Should all government it systems be using open source software. We are americas primary platform for aggregating open source software from the federal government. The white house releases policy to help government. Innovation through reusable and open source software the u. The opensource initiative hopes to encourage the federal agencies to give equal priority to procuring free and open source software in all of their procurement decisions. Achieving efficiency, transparency, and innovation through reusable and open source software the u. State and local agencies have critical missions, with tight deadlines and tight budgets so choosing established partners who understand how to quickly and securely leverage open source to. Clarifying guidance regarding open source software oss. Government is committed to improving the way federal agencies buy, build, and. Adopting open source software makes sense for government agencies. The government of assam state made open source a part of its it policy kerala. Government agencies adopt open source the boston globe.
Many agencies in the federal government use approved public repositories for open source software development. New github authorization expands agency access to open. New policy pushes for open source in california agencies. Many local, regional, and national governments are engaged with open source software and communities. Below are only a few resources that may help departments and agencies understand the. Open source for america osfa is an organization of technology industry leaders, nongovernment associations and academic and research institutions dedicated to advocating the use of. And, adopting a specific product such as postgresql with appropriate enterprise grade support yields many benefits. Government open source policies center for strategic and. Recognizing the potential benefits of open source, a number of private sector companies have also shifted some of their software development projects to an open source model. The governments open source software solution clearancejobs.
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