Andy Updegrove announced in a post on ConsortiumInfo.orgthe formation of a new group to advocate for the use of Open Source software in government. He also announced his appointment to the board of advisors.
A new web site has been created for the group, Open Source for America, or OSA.
The mission of OSA is to educate decision makers in the U.S. Federal government about the advantages of using free and open source software; to encourage the Federal agencies to give equal priority to procuring free and open source software in all of their procurement decisions; and generally provide an effective voice to the U.S. Federal government on behalf of the open source software community, private industry, academia, and other non-profits. The mission incorporates three goals: (1) to effectuate changes in U.S. Federal government policies and practices so that all the government may more fully benefit from and utilize free and open source software; (2) to help coordinate these communities to collaborate with the Federal government on technology requirements; and (3) to raise awareness and create understanding among federal government leaders in the executive and legislative branches about the values and implications of open source software. OSA may also participate in standards development and other activities that may support its open source mission.
We hope that OSA will provide an effective counterbalance to the hired lobbyists that are paid advocates for proprietary software companies. In this time of financial challenges, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can be an important tool in stretching limited budgets, both in the private sector and government.
To quote from the press release:
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.
Best wishes to all who are working on this project. As an Open Source advocate I believe that the taxpayers will be the ultimate beneficiaries.
