Broad Coalition Formed to Promote Benefits and Adoption of Open Source Software in Government
Group includes diverse cross-section of technology industry leaders,
associations, non-governmental organizations, communities and
academic/research institutions
WASHINGTON/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, a broad
cross-section of more than 70 companies, academic institutions,
communities, related groups and individuals joined together to announce
the formation of Open Source for America, an organization that will
serve as a unified voice for the promotion of open source software in
the U.S. Federal Government arena. To register or learn more about the
coalition, visit www.opensourceforamerica.org.
With the U.S. Federal Government increasingly focused on utilizing
and adopting technologies to better serve citizens, there is growing
recognition of the freedoms that open source software and open
technology solutions can provide - an open, transparent and
cost-effective option - for government agencies. Gartner recently
estimated by 2011 more than 25 percent of government vertical,
domain-specific applications will either be open source, contain open
source application components or be developed as community source.
"Open source software can help deliver improved government service -
plain and simple - and the Administration recognizes this more than any
in our nation's history," said David Thomas, principal with Mehlman
Vogel Castagnetti and spokesman for the Open Source for America
campaign.
The mission of Open Source for America is to serve as a centralized
advocate and to encourage broader U.S. Federal Government support of
and participation in free and open source software. Specifically, Open
Source for America will: help effect change in policies and practices
to allow the Federal Government to better utilize these technologies;
help coordinate these communities to collaborate with the federal
government on technology requirements; and raise awareness and create
understanding among federal government leaders about the values and
implications of open source software.
The diverse Board of Advisors of Open Source for America
(www.opensourceforamerica.org/board) includes respected leaders, such
as Roger Burkhardt, Rishab Ghosh, Marv Langston, Chris Lundburg, Eben
Moglen, Arthur L. Money, Tim O'Reilly, Stormy Peters, Simon Phipps,
Mark Shuttleworth, Paul Smith, Dr. Doug Stone, Michael Tiemann, Andy
Updegrove, Bill Vass, Tony Wasserman and Jim Zemlin.
Founding members of Open Source for America
(www.opensourceforamerica.org/founders) include: Acquia; Alfresco
Software; Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Jono Bacon; Black Duck
Software, Inc.; Josh Berkus; Ean Schuessler, BrainFood; Canonical;
CodeWeavers; CollabNet; Colosa, Inc.; Continuent; Danese Cooper;
Crucial Point LLC; Josh Davis; Debian; Democracy in Action; Electronic
Frontier Foundation; EnterpriseDB; Bdale Garbee; GNOME Foundation;
Google; ibiblio.org; Ingres Corporation; Jaspersoft; Mitch Kapor, Kapor
Capital; KnowledgeTree; Marv Langston; The Linux Foundation; Linux
Fund, Inc.; Lucid Imagination; Geir Magnusson, Jr.; Medsphere; Mehlman
Vogel Castagnetti; Mercury Federal Systems; Dawn Meyerriecks; Monty
Widenius, Monty Program AB; Mozilla; North Carolina State University
Center for Open Software Engineering; Novell; Open Solutions Alliance;
Open Source Initiative; Open Source Institute; Oracle; O'Reilly
Publishing; Oregon State University Open Source Lab; Open Source
Software Institute; Pentaho; RadiantBlue; Red Hat; Relative Computing
Environments LLC.; Walt Scacchi, Institute for Software Research at UC
Irvine; Software Freedom Law Center; SpikeSource; SugarCRM; Sunlight
Labs; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; School of Engineering, University of
California, Merced; University of Southern Mississippi; Andy Updegrove,
Gesmer Updegrove LLP; Tony Wasserman, Center for Open Source
Investigation, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley; Zenoss, Inc.; Zimbra;
and Zmanda.
Thomas continues, "Open Source for America is bringing together some
of the industry's brightest minds, who will work together with
policymakers and the public so that technologies enabled by the
software freedoms can help make government IT deployment more secure,
more cost-effective, faster to deploy, with greater privacy and the
ability to help eliminate vendor lock-in. Open source software may not
be a cure-all, but it could save billions of dollars, help foster
innovation and empower our government to work smarter."
For recent open source developments in government, click here (www.opensourceforamerica.org/case-studies).
About Open Source for America
Open Source for America is a coalition of industry leaders,
non-government groups and academic/research institutions organized to
serve as a centralized advocate, to encourage broader U.S. Federal
Government support of and participation in free and open source
software. Membership in Open Source for America is open to any
individual or entity signing the campaign's mission pledge. Learn more
at www.opensourceforamerica.org. You can also follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/OpenSourceGov.
Source: Open Source for America
CONTACT: Jim Hock of 463 Communications, +1-202-463-0013 x 202, or
Jim.Hock@463.com, for Open Source for America
Web Site: www.opensourceforamerica.org
Read more