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The UK Cabinet Office has made no secret of its enthusiasm for open source software. They've provided a Government Action Plan, included open source in their ICT Strategy, and even provided an Open Source Procurement Toolkit for government buyers. They see the same benefits as their US counterparts: a more competitive software market, more innovation, more interagency collaboration, fewer silos, better security, and more opportunities for domestic software development firms. The UK, however, hasn't yet seen the kind of open source adoption we have in the United States despite similar challenges and similar market conditions. » Read more

I recently went to the MIL-OSS ("military open source software") 2011 Working Group (WG) / Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Topics included the open prosthetics project, releasing government-funded software as OSS, replacing MATLAB with Python, the "Open Technology Dossier Protocol" (OTDP), confining users using SELinux, an explanation of DoD policies on OSS, Charlie Schweik's study on what makes a success OSS project, and more. Some people started developing a walkie-talkie Android app at the conference. Here's a summary of the conference, if you're curious. » Read more

NASA has been implementing an Open Government Plan for nearly a year, and this week they held the first NASA Open Source Summit in Mountain View, CA. But the roots of open source at NASA go back much further, to its founding legislation in 1958, which designed NASA as a source that would "provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information"--a goal perfectly suited to an open approach. » Read more

The February issue of DACS' (Data and Analysis Center for Software) Software Tech News focuses entirely on the U.S. Department of Defense and open source software.  However, even if you aren't interested in the use of open source in the military, there are still some gems that apply to all U.S. government agencies that you might want to check out.  

The articles include: » Read more

The results are in for U.S. agencies' use of open source, thanks to a scorecard released today by Open Source for America.  The Departments of Defense and Energy had the highest scores, largely due to the fact that they have "published agency-created software code as open source and provide clear guidance identifying open source as a permitted procurement option." » Read more

Openness in the military is coming of-age, as was evident to the attendees at the 2nd Military Open Source Software (Mil-OSS) working group held August 3-5 in Arlington, Virginia. This grassroots gathering of practitioners in the art/science of creating military capabilities was unique in its inclusive atmosphere of government civilians, military uniformed (and retired) personnel, government contractors, and university academics. All gathered with one goal: » Read more

Brian Purchia of Burson-Marsteller has a post over on GovFresh about the value of open source to unions. His argument pivots on cost-savings. I think you could make a more expansive argument that includes risk mitigation and innovation, but describing the advantage to unions is an interesting angle I hadn’t seen before. » Read more

Towards the end of 2009, the office of the DoD CIO issued a memo clarifying their position on open source software. There were some misconceptions, misunderstandings, and just plain FUD surrounding their stance previously, and they wanted to make it clear that they considered open source just as viable for development as any other type of software.

We tracked down some very smart people--software security expert David A. Wheeler and Dan Risacher, who authored the memo in question--to help explain how the memo came to be, and what it means for the Government sector moving forward. » Read more