Government Computer News
OMB splits the difference on open source
Digg
De.licio.us
Slashdot
Technorati
Image: Susan Whitney-Wilkerson
OMB’s Karen Evans says many agencies have been asking if and when they can adopt open-source software.
Advocates of open-source software applauded the M-04-16 memo to senior procurement officials issued this month by Karen Evans, OMB administrator for IT and e-government. They believe it gives agencies the go-ahead to use freeware.
But commercial vendors also praised the memo, claiming it puts their proprietary software on a more competitive footing with open source in federal procurements.
Agency use of open-source software is hotly debated because the source code can be altered to customize programs and fix bugs—and, vendors say, to get around procurement laws. Some say agencies’ use of open source will harm the U.S. economy.
Evans said OMB has been getting a lot of questions from agencies about when and if they could use open-source tools. “The memo provides direction to acquisition officials on a series of matters, including proprietary and open-source software,” she said.
The brief memo says procurements must be “technology- and vendor-neutral,” as required by OMB circulars A-11 and A-130 and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. It notes that proprietary and open-source software have different licensing restrictions, and that open-source licenses typically require that the source code to modifications be made widely available. “For us, the memo was very important because OMB is clearly laying out a level playing field,” said Peter Gallagher, president of Development InfoStructure Corp., an Arlington, Va., IT consulting firm that helped the Labor Department build an open-source application called Workforce Connections.
“They are clearly saying to procurement officials, ‘Hey, open source is one alternative,’ ” Gallagher said.
Some commercial vendors were equally enthusiastic.
“We think it’s a great memo,” said Bill Guidera, policy counsel for Microsoft Corp., speaking at a recent meeting sponsored by the Forum on Technology and Innovation. Guidera likened the memo to one issued by then-Defense Department CIO John Stenbit last year. Both admonished agencies that open-source code is “subject to the same license terms and conditions as regular code,” he said.
Guidera contrasted the two directives with a growing number of state bills requiring procurement officers to consider open-source software when making purchases, or to use open-source instead of commercial software.
“There are bills that say you cannot use [Microsoft] Windows because Windows is not open-source,” Guidera said. “There are lots of reasons not to use Windows, but having a state law that says you can’t seems awfully prohibitive.”
Most such bills have been defeated so far, “but it’s still something that is out there,” Guidera said.
![1105 Government Information Group [valor]](/images/1105logo_website.gif "Government Computer News [valor]")
© 1996-2008 1105 Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
