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The Open Source Dilemma for Governments
Sam Hiser writes "Tom Adelstein, open source consultant and Member of the Open Government Interoperability Project ("OGIP") working group, offers another incisive article in which he discusses the costs in the terms of lives and dollars when local governments do not deploy open standards-based software for data sharing. Asks Adelstein, 'Can local governments afford to create redundant applications to meet new Federal standards for first responder alerts, emergency services, law enforcement, broadcasters?' He posits that Open Source collaborative initiatives may provide the only solution for the US if the people want to create a safer environment."
If we want secure software, it has to be open source.. Granted, at the start the code quality of open source stuff is around equal to closed source stuff but the resources available to check code that is public are far larger than any closed source firm can muster.
Simon.
Can local governments afford to create redundant applications to meet new Federal standards for first responder alerts, emergency services, law enforcement, broadcasters
No! With or without open source, we can't afford such nonsense.
This is another clear example of the overgrowth of the role of the federal government. They're going to run our local governments deeper into debt with these ridiculous unfunded mandates that may be wildly inappropriate for a given locality. The constitution clearly states the roles of the federal government and leaves the rest to the states and localities. This along with over-regulation of personal lifestyles that's going to come with public healthcare, are the biggest disasters on the horizon.
The interesting upshoot of this has been that when governments actually commission a study on the total cost of ownership for a Linux/Open Source solution, they find switching is to their benefit
Microsoft's is doing it's best to keep the bleeding to a minimum, but more companies and governments are realizing that moving away from their dependency on MS is a Good Thing(tm)
The issues that this article brings up are similar regardless of whether commercial software or opensource software is used.
This article is really talking about standardization and consistency across government organizations -- a huge job.
Imaging thousands of individual offices who have operated in a certain way for a hundred years. Imagine all of the paperwork, homemade spreadsheets, interoffice memos that spawn secondary spreadsheets, etc. This unfortunately is how the US government works.
Now imagine someone coming in and promoting replacing whatever random assortment of tools is in use with opensource tools. This means retraining. This means new hardware. This means *A CHANGE*. Uh oh.
Is this the right long-term thing to do? Yes!!
Is this going to be easy? NO!
In order for this to be successful, it will have to have very important people behind it pushing it from the top down and funding the proper resources (hardware and people) where necessary to bring the government into the 21st century.
I for one, certainly hope it can be done, and it would be great for the US and the rest of the world (except Microsoft) if it can be done with opensource software.
The original Internet and Open Source standards came out of public monies mostly granted to university research departments by the Department of Defense. Who paid for those efforts? Why must the public have to pay for those technologies once again because companies like Microsoft adopt them and then resell them as proprietary software?
What the hell is he talking about? In the previous paragraph he writes:
If the Internet failed to follow accepted standards, it simply would not work
So the Internet works because it "follows standards", and we know MSIE (price: free) has the largest share of the browser market. So MS hasn't broken the Internet. Can someone give an example of what he's talking about? And don't tell me Kerberos because it's not the example you're looking for (MS did not co-opt it - MS extended Kerberos in accordance with the spec).
He started out reasonable and then got shrill. He throws out statements like, "Seventy-five percent of the municipalities and schools in the United States cannot afford proprietary software" So...that means 75% of the municipalities are either a) running OSS, b) using pen and paper, or c) pirating all their software. A source reference would have been nice.
Oh no...he has recommendations too:
the states should require the use of Open Standards and Open Source Software when applicable
When applicable? So, who decides when the software "applies"? Availability? Cost? (cost of development for a custom solution vs cost of COTS software) Everyone knows offshore development is cheaper - since he beats the fiscal drum so loudly does he also advocate sending any custom programming jobs overseas? He did have one good idea:
If we can pay for software one time and share it with all government entities, we empower Americans to participate in the security of the homeland.
Solution: site licenses for America!
I have a lot of experience with software for local law enforcement agencies. This particular area is a morass of smaller and larger companies, each with their own software packages that may or may not interoperate with their competitors. I've seen a number of small police agencies that have been trapped by trying to support a package from a vendor that either (a) is out of business, or (b) is no longer supporting the package/version in question. In my judgement, a good open source package supporting local law enforcement could make major improvements to the situation.
Having said that, I don't think the existence of such a package would, in fact, put many of these vendors out of business. Most local police departments don't have the expertise to manage the installation (including data conversion!), tailoring, etc. that is required for any such package. There would still be plenty of opportunity for companies to provide this as a service.
However, the fact that the underlying package was standard, and known and understood by more than the employess of a single company would help insulate the local police from the problems that arise when their support organization moves on, for whatever reason.
In addition, there is a big drive these days for national, state, and regional, and local interoperability between law enforcement agencies. Anything that helps to standardize data models, etc. etc. would be a big help in this area.