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Open Government: Feds try to Reduce Duplication and Encourage Innovation with Open Source
Once shunned by governments, open source code is becoming a priority within federal government. A new policy introduced by Federal CIO Tony Scott calls for all software written within the government to be available to all other federal department or agency. In addition, agencies must release at least one-fifth of their code as open source to the public.
By making federal source code open, the hope is that duplication of effort will be reduced. It is thought that a more open policy will promote innovation and collaboration. Scott is trying to steer to government in a way that doesn’t favor specific vendors and plans to implement a merit-based path when selecting technology and IT investments. Although some source code will remain exempt because of patent or other laws like export controls.
But some, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, don’t think that the government is going far enough. The EFF believes that all government code should be open and available.
Elliot Harmon, activist at the EFF, said that “open-government policy is at its best when its mandates are broad and its exceptions are narrow. Rather than trust government officials’ judgment about what materials to make public or keep private, policies like OMB’s should set the default to open.”
