Your U.S. government uses open source software, and loves it

Writing the words government and open source in the same sentence feels inherently wrong, almost as if lying. Recent talk of the NSA, Edward Snowden, and PRISMdoesnt make the government seem any more open. The government carries the stigma as being on of the least open things in the world. If youre a fan of House of Cards on Netflix, you understand just how not open the government is perceived to be. Yet contrary to popular belief, the government is using open source as a tool to improve agencies on the back-end and save tax dollars.

. More of the government is using open source than you may realize. To quote OpenSource.com, While the U.S. government has, to date not issued guidance requiring a preference for open source, it has clearly indicated that open source products are to be given at least as much preference as proprietary products.

OpenSource provides an example of the successful use of open source by the a U.S. government agency, with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It is the second largest agency of the U.S. federal government, employing more than 280,000 people and providing health care services to almost 8.7 million patients, benefitting close to 23 million veterans. The VA also operates the nations largest health care system with more than 1,700 hospitals, clinics, community living centers, and other facilities. And the VA also happens to be one of the largest users in the federal government adopting Open Source Software (OSS).

Wes Caldwell. Image via LinkedIn

To give you more insight as to the governments use of open source software, we sat down with Wes Caldwell, Chief Architect, Intelligent Software Solutions (ISS). ISS provides the federal government and the Department of Defense with data visualization, event analysis and pattern detection software. The company places a heavy emphasis on OSS applications and affordable government off-the-shelf (GOTS) products, which make it easier for government agencies to integrate into their networks and keep them from having these inflexible programs that lead to huge cost overruns.

The following is an excerpt from a recent interview with Caldwell, who shares his thoughts on the benefits of OSS in the US government, as well as suggestions on how the country can tackle remaining obstacles to OSS adoption.

What are 2-3 immediate benefits for government agencies using open source?

.

Can you give examples of the Pentagon or other government agencies using open source?

Read more:
Your U.S. government uses open source software, and loves it