Massachusetts Builds Open-Source Public Repository

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."

Comments

Re:Open Source and Goverment?

[Amiga Lover]

Same here. I'd like to know what checks & balances there are in place to ensure there are no government 'back doors' into software.

Is this the first step towards a governmental attempt to control F/OSS software? Will we soon only be able to get our software from government approved repositories?

I don't like the smell of it

Ooooohh, you just wait...

[inode_buddha]

BillG's gonna be pissed now!

Anyone read as *M$* build Opensource repository

[toesate]

I thought the sun has set on the wrong side suddenly.

I gotta admit, I'm impressed

[digrieze]

I was wondering WHAT could take the place of "THE BIG DIG", now I know.

This is a stroke of genious, fully worthy of a legacy for Teddy K. and J.F.Kerry. Just imagine, a government agency authorized to spend the governments money to store and maintain active datacenters for publically available program code they rip off the internet. Just imagine the Terrabytes waiting to be archived in some dismal data warehouse that will need a continually increasing budget. Best yet, the only people that will be aware of it will be a few legislators that actually read the budget and notice a single line item for "data storage".

If the air force had figured this out area 51 would still be a total secret and the budget would be high enough by now to have their OWN space station.

and no, I'm NOT cynical.