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Massachusetts Builds Open-Source Public Repository

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the seeing-the-light dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Massachusetts on Wednesday took the wraps off a new software repository designed to let government agencies make more efficient use of open-source software. The repository will be managed by the Government Open Code Collaborative, a newly formed group of seven states and four municipalities that will contribute and download open-source software and proprietary software designed by government agencies for their use."

4 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Massachusetts Information Technology Division by DeadSea · · Score: 4, Informative
    This makes me proud to live in Massachusetts. I can't find the repositor that the article is talking about, but it appears to come out of the Massachusetts Government Information Technology Division headed by Peter J. Quinn, CIO. He seems be putting quite a bit of support behind moving the Mass. Government to open source.

    The ITD website has some really kewl stuff on it like a legal toolkit for using Open Source software. Press releases on the sit seem to indicate that Republican Governer Mitt Romney is behind the move to open source. He'll be getting my vote when he runs for re-election.

  2. Re:Other states by mrscott · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you contact one of the members of the GOCC, they can likely get any government entity into the project that is willing to work with open source. It's actually a really cool initiative and will hopefully drive consistent open source applications in government.

  3. fermi does this too.. by Xzzy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Granted much of the software isn't as user-oriented, but that's not the point. The point is it is another government institution that has put real effort into making free software available to the public.

    http://fermitools.fnal.gov/

    This is just one example I personally know of. Is this common at all? I'm too lazy to sift through every *.gov domain hunting for a software page. ;)

  4. Re:Incentive issues by jks · · Score: 3, Informative
    Would there have been a Linux if the Government of Finland stepped in

    In fact, the Government of Finland, via the University of Helsinki, funded the beginnings of Linux by keeping Linus employed and not bothering him. Of course, nowadays the university is, shall we say, much more proactive about IPR issues, so it won't probably happen again.