GovFresh - Gov 2.0, open gov news, guides, TV, tech, people » Open Source for America

Video: ‘How open source can make us a stronger society’

Luke Fretwell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:46:27 +0000

Ingres Vice President of Product Management Deb Woods discusses Open Source for America and government policy issues around open source. Ingres is an OSFA founding member and Woods serves on its Steering Committee. She also runs the open source blog and podcast Out of the Woods.

(HT Kim Jokisch and opensource.com)

Gov 2.0 guide to Open Source for America

Luke Fretwell — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:21:21 +0000

Open Source for America is an organization formed in July 2009 by businesses and organizations to advocate for open source technology use within the federal government.

Mission:

“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.”

Goals:

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;

to help coordinate these communities to collaborate with the Federal government on technology requirements;

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. OSFA may also participate in standards development and other activities that may support its open source mission.

Podcast with OSFA board members Roger Burkhardt and Tom Rabon on the creation of OSFA:

Red Hat Government’s Gunnar Hellekson announces launch of OSFA at OSCON 09:

‘Getting Involved with Open Source for America’ video:

Links:

Open Source for America launches new video campaign

Luke Fretwell — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:07:47 +0000

Open Source for America launched a new video campaign to promote the benefits of government using open source technology. The video includes business leaders from Red Hat, Sun Microsystems and Google.

OSFA’s mission:

“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.”

Gunnar Hellekson talks government and open source principles at OSCON 09

Luke Fretwell — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:53:27 +0000

Gunnar Hellekson of Red Hat Government shares how a ‘fail faster’ culture is an option when it comes to the government embracing open source, how we must celebrate the success stories and the importance of Open Source for America, in his talk, “Applying Open Source Principles to Federal Government.”

Quotable:

“They’re not lazy. They’re not stupid. They’re just constrained by a broken system. And so when they succeed, we need to reward them.”