Linux Online - Government Moves Into the Open

Government Moves Into the Open


Publication:	Public CIO	Date:	Jan 22 2005
Reporter:	Tod Newcombe

Perhaps the clearest sign yet that open source has gone mainstream occurred yesterday when a group of government officials met to discuss the technology and practically nothing was said about the fact that the software is free.

Many interesting points were made Thursday in Waltham, MA, at the National Government CIO Summit on Open Source, but the most important came towards the end of the meeting when Thom Rubel of Meta Group and Debra Anderson, CIO, Novell, both emphasized that open source is a compelling technology for the public sector because of the value it brings to the business needs of government agencies. Anderson pointed out that her budget has shrunk by one-third in the past three years -- much like public sector IT budgets -- but because of open source her staff is able to deliver the value that Novell's business units need to succeed in a highly competitive market.