New Coalition Urges Government to Consider Open Source

Posted by: Scott Johnson, Co-Founder and Principal Aug 11, 2009 0 Comments

As the government continues to look for ways to cut spending, open source software advocates are organizing themselves in an effort to encourage Federal government agencies to consider open source software for their needs. The recently-created Open Source for America coalition hopes to raise the profile of open source software so that government agencies may consider it as a truly viable option when selecting software.

Made up of a community of open source software providers (like Red Hat’s Maria Moore and reps from Google, Mozilla and Sun Microsystems), NGOs, academic institutions, and other organizations, Open Source for America is actively recruiting individuals and organizations who share its mission.

This is a step in the right direction for a number of reasons—not the least of which is the fact that open source software is so cost effective. Open source software not only saves companies money by foregoing upfront licensing fees—it also allows customers to get most of what they want right out of the box, letting them save money on the upfront investment and instead, put money toward consulting fees to tailor the software to their specific needs.

Businesses and government agencies have historically had concerns about migrating to open source software; they want to ensure that they’re choosing a product that has been vetted, has adequate support options in case they have questions, and has some chain of accountability in case problems arise. But as open source adoption grows, on our own desktops, our government agencies, and into outer space, previous concerns are slowly being put aside.

As a taxpayer and a technology lover, I’d like to see our government making the wise move toward open source solutions.

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Scott Johnson

Co-Founder and Principal

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