The Obama administration recently considered open source solutions as it reexamined the future computing needs of the federal government.
Today the Computer & Communications Industry Association sent a letter to Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra praising the move that could help reduce costs for taxpayers and give the government more flexibility with IT solutions down the road.
Open source software, which can be used, copied, modified and redistributed by anyone, is crucial to the IT marketplace and the modern IT ecosystem. In the letter CCIA noted that, “Open source software is not only an important procurement option for the United States, it can also be a useful tool for engaging the public.”
Past procurement policies had prevented the government from using open source and also made it difficult to accept free and no cost IT solutions.