Save Money - Require government to use Open Source Software whenever possible

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The government is a huge customer for closed source proprietary software which incurs an unnecessary expense to taxpayers in software licensing fees. The general philosophy of open source software is that "more heads are better than one" when it comes to developing a logical solution to problem-solving. This philosophy compliments the role of our government which goes something like "for the people by the people"

Why Is This Idea Important?

Using open source software in government and even encouraging its use in schools will save tons of money and will also avoid potential corporate influence on the governmental infrastructure. For example if separate government offices wanted to integrate their systems it could be done without being at the mercy of a huge corporate vendor's prerogative in opening their proprietary formats.

Idea # 55Making Data More Accessible

Comments

blogs 9 months ago

Umm, SECURITY?

rkh 9 months ago

Ummm, SECURITY on open source code, where the internals are open for inspection by many, is generally better than the commercial, you-can't-see-that products.

"Many eyes make all bugs shallow"

dkastner 9 months ago

Recently, China has upgraded their key government servers to run a modified version of FreeBSD, an open source operating system. Apparently, closed source operating systems like Windows were not sufficiently secure.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/kylin_new_chine.html

cpeters 9 months ago

There is no security advantage in proprietary software. Anyone wishing to attack a proprietary system can use disassemblers or search the machine code to look for the same patterns they would be looking for in open source code. The security of any system is primarily dependent on how it is designed and built.

crizgo 9 months ago

Here is the in depth article from IBM Systems Journal that inspired me to post this idea.

http://domino.research.ibm.com/tchjr/journalindex.nsf/a3807c5b4823c53f85256561006324be/c7d275e5db43b2b485256ff800670d12?OpenDocument

You can also get this article for free through a public or university library with access to ebscohost.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=17334154&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live

crizgo 9 months ago

Here is one more link for those who wonder if open source is security concern.

http://www.openssl.org/

erick.gonzalez 9 months ago

Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer is a great example of this idea, yet the complexity behind government data and accessibility creates a different environment where more eyes on the source code do not outweigh the benefits of using open source software.

I mean not to insult your intelligence crizgo, but I think that you should familiarize yourself more with open source software and the security vulnerabilities open source exposes the federal government to.

It is true that the open source content management system Drupal has been used by the Obama administration in one of their most recent projects, but you cannot expect to have the rest of the government follow this blunt move. As Vivec Kundra pointed out on his 80/20 vision for IT implementations, you can expect 80% of the government IT implementations to be open source, cloud implementations, even crowdsourcing ideas as is the very site that we are collaborating in at this very moment. While dedicating the other 20% to secured infrastructure that resides withing well layered and secured servers running on enterprise software products that hosts the more valuable and sensitive data.

Erick Gonzalez
Government 2.0 Consultant

stuart.mckee 9 months ago

Software is a tiny percentage of the 'cost' picture (but expectations for value should be high!) If you draw a pie chart of 'costs' which includes software, hardware, and support - software comprises a small piece of the pie. The 'create a preference' pitch is an ideological debate with little merit (on either side). For example, when you say 'open source software' do you mean how it is licensed, developed, or the business model that supports it?

'use freeware' is not an enterprise strategy. Software (and the contributions of the people that create it) does provide significant value and is an appropriate investement. There is far greater 'lock in' and cost for government with hardware and services, and I would argue that moving more of the 'investment pie' to software will actually *decrease* total cost, and *increase* outcomes.

chris.hankin 9 months ago

security -- The U.S. military and intelligence agencies for years have leveraged OSS, recognizing its security advantages. They see the availability of source code as essential to in-depth security review and audit, plus there is the ability to more rapidly adjust to changing situations and threats.

Also, as you note, there are other important advantages to oss to be leveraged to realize open government and save tax payers money. A great example of successful leveraging of its advantages is the NHIN Connect pilot recently conducted by HHS, DOD Military Health, SSA, and others. These agencies were able to quickly - and and inexpensively develop a pilot solution that enables multiple federal agencies to securely link their existing systems to NHIN, allowing for the beginnings of a true electronic healthcare record exchange. The pilot was developed with no need for long procurement cycles or massive costs since the entire software backbone is 100% open source. (The pilot was an excellent example of the “adoption-led approach”. In this approach, developers select from available OSS and try the software that fits best in their proposed application. They develop prototypes, switch packages as they find benefits and problems and finally create a deployable solution to their business problem. At that final point, they seek out vendors to provide support, services and more.)

From a policy standpoint the U.S. government is trailing other national governments. The Dutch, the Danes, the Brazilians, the Malaysians, and others have adopted strong national policies on both OSS and open standards. The UK is the most recent convert, having just published “Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan”
(see http://www.cio.gov.uk/transformational_government/open_source/index.asp).
This UK Action Plan features assertions and actions that the US Federal Government should emulate. The Plan asserts that the government will:
- actively and fairly consider open source solutions alongside proprietary ones;
- consider exit and transition costs as well as the total lifetime cost of ownership;
- pick open source where it doesn't cost more;
- insist proprietary vendors explain exit, rebid and rebuild costs;
- expect proprietary licenses to be transferable throughout government; and,
- expect public sector solutions to be re-usable

and combines these assertions with actions that include:
- develop clear and open guidance for ensuring that open source products are evaluated and considered equally (action 1);
- keep and share records of approval and use of open source (action 3)
- challenge suppliers to demonstrate that they have capability in open source and that open source products have been actively considered in whole or as part of the business solutions being proposed (action 5);
- work to ensure that government information is available in open formats, and it will make this a required standard for government websites (action 8); and,
- general purpose software developed by or for government will be released on an open source basis (action 9).

rjksbec 9 months ago

The best technology policy for the federal government – indeed, any government – is to look at the wide array of choices in the marketplace, and select the option that is most efficient and cost effective. Let choice and competition reign. Let entrepreneurial firms compete, and let the taxpayers benefit accordingly. Government mandates -- including open source mandates -- only limit choices, thereby limiting competition and potential benefits.

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