I'm the Chief Strategist for Red Hat's US Public Sector group, where I work with systems integrators and government agencies to encourage the use of open source software in government. I'm a founder of Open Source for America, one of Federal Computer Week's Fed 100 for 2010, and I've been voted one of the FedScoop 50 for industry leadership. I'm a member of the Military Open Source working group, the SIIA Software Division Board, the Board of Directors for the Public Sector Innovation Group, the Open Technology Fund Advisory Council, and New America's California Civic Innovation Project Advisory Council. I perk up when people talk about cross-domain security, edge innovation, and interagency collaboration through the open source model. I'm also co-host of the Dave and Gunnar Show. Prior to joining Red Hat, I worked as a developer, systems administrator, and IT director for a series of internet businesses. I've also been a business and IT consultant to not-for-profit organizations in New York City. During that time, I spearheaded the reform of safety regulations for New York State's electrical utilities following the tragic death of Jodie Lane.When I'm not spreading the Good News about open source, I'm wishing I had a dogenjoying time with my dog and my wife.
Authored Comments
I think that industry trends made broader adoption of open source more-or-less inevitable. Open source is much more broadly used everywhere, so it makes sense that we're seeing more of it in government. Kids who installed Slackware on their computers in their freshmen dorm rooms are now at the age where they can start writing policy and managing projects.
That said, the Obama Administration has been far more vocal in its support for open source than previous administrations. I'll submit whitehouse.gov, the Federal Register, data.gov, the Technology Neutrality memo, and the Shared First policy as a few examples. These were not radical, skunkworks projects or research artifacts. Across agencies, they've made a deliberate decision to use and publish open source at an increasing rate.
Based on your all-caps words and conflation of the President with the Administration, I have the sense that you feel I'm being partisan. I'm not. I suspect we'll see further moves in this direction whoever the President is after the election.
Funny you should mention that, Ivan. Karl Fogel and I are presenting our "history of open source in government" at OSCON this year. You can get a sneak preview at <a href="http://gov-oss.org/">http://gov-oss.org/</a>. You might also enjoy the earlier "<a href="https://opensource.com/government/12/5/history-open-source-government">History of open source in government</a>" I wrote a few months ago.