The White House releases policy to help government agencies go open source
Linux - NewsThis forum is for original Linux News. If you'd like to write content for LQ, feel free to contact us.
All threads in the forum need to be approved before they will appear.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,600
Rep:
The White House releases policy to help government agencies go open source
Quote:
The White House (led by United States Chief Information Officer Tony Scott) has been pretty vocal about using technology to improve how government operates. They want to make sure code helps, not hurts, government agencies, and that the U.S. government can use technology just as effectively as a private company can.
In March the White House issued a blog post detailing their intentions to bring the benefits of open source software to the government, and today they released the Federal Source Code policy, a set of rules that should help government agencies be more efficient with the code they write.
The main requirement is that any new custom source code developed “by or for the Federal Government” has to be made available for sharing and re-use by all federal agencies. For example, this means that the TSA can have access to custom made software that was commissioned by the FBI.
Considering there is probably a great deal of overlap in applications needed by certain branches of the federal government, this rule alone should save the government (and taxpayers) a great deal of money. The policy states that “ensuring Government-wide reuse rights for custom code that is developed using Federal funds has numerous benefits for American taxpayers.”
But what about making this code available to the public? This is obviously a little more complicated and controversial, because federal agencies often deal with information not available to the general public.
But that doesn’t mean the government isn’t going open source. The policy establishes a pilot program that is a compromise of sorts. Federal agencies will be required to release at least 20 percent of new custom developed code as open source software. While this is only a pilot, the hope is that it will encourage cost savings and increased efficiency within the federal government.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.