Open Source For America

Open Source For America is an organization dedicated to promoting the use of open source technology to the federal government. The first point that jumped out at me was the idea of test driving before you buy. I had never thought of that being and advantage of open source, but I have personally witnessed several situations where companies have spent large sums of money on technology that didn't fill their exact need. If they had utilized an open source option, they could have tried it before they sunk money into.

As a taxpayer, that really hits home. When I reflect on the money that was spent by a small business on failed technology, it is $20 or $30k. That is a big hit for a small business. The federal government may spend millions or more on software that didn't fill the role it was intended to fill. With an open source model, the software can be tested before purchased, and in many cases, modified if it needs to be in order to fill a need.

In reading some of the case studies, I was again moved as a taxpayer. Open source software for earthquake tracking near brilliant. Earthquakes affect so many people all over the world, why not let those folks volunteer their time on development rather than spend tax dollar on just a few developers of proprietary systems.

As a former military person, the case study about the NSA and SELinux also hit home. Our national security is in all of our best interest to protect. It makes sense to allow thousands of developers to search for and fix security holes in our infrastructure, rather than a few select folks. Especially in an ever changing electronic world. A piece of technology that is said to have no holes today may be cracked tomorrow. The more developers working on the patch, the faster it will get fixed.

In short, this website opened my eyes to all sorts of new advantages and usages for open source technology.