Home

Open Source describes a philosophical and practical revolution in software development and information exchange. Literally, open source means that the source code—the language in which the program is written—is available to the general public and does not have the licensing restrictions of proprietary software.

Communities of programmers share ideas and collaborate effectively to create innovative and custom-designed software packages, often incorporating the freely available tools and techniques previously developed within the community. The common space environment in which Open Source Software (OSS) is developed brings together capable and visionary contributors from all over the globe and with the widest variety of expertise and interests. The system in which they work—the collaborative environment—refines their collective contributions to generate the program, which is continually scrutinized, tested, evaluated, and improved by hundreds or thousands of programmers.

IT leadership at all levels—defense, federal, state and private—is faced with the harsh realities of building and maintaining enterprise systems that meet today's needs yet have an eye to the future.

For government agencies and businesses, Open Source can mean more cost-effective and improved delivery of services to constituents and consumers. This is particularly true for those agencies that share operations with other agencies—from collecting taxes to issuing dog licenses.  In the homeland security and emergency management arena, it could mean increased interoperability to save lives during an emergency or catastrophic disaster.  And for the defense community, Open Source's technology agility can allow our military to adequately compete in modern warfare and defend our citizens at home and abroad.