U.S. Governments Advised to Use Open Source

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices is reporting that non-profit public policy research group, Committee for Economic Development, has released a 72-page report that takes a look at open standards, open source software, and 'open innovation.' From the article: 'The report concludes that openness should be promoted as a matter of public policy, in order to foster innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and world economies.' The full text [PDF] of the report is also available for download from the CED site."

Comments

LinuxDevices' summary is a tad misleading...

[TripMaster Monkey]

From LinuxDevices' summary:

Open Source Software

        * Governments should not mandate any particular license, such as requiring open source software only; however...

                    o No citizen should be required to use the hardware or software of any particular vendor

                    o International procurements should also supprt inter-operability requirements

And directly from the report (boldface mine):

The Council believes there are certain critical functions of government that should be conducted solely with interoperable technology; in these critical areas, no citizen should be required to use the hardware or software of any particular vendor.

It's fortunate that LinuxDevices included a link to the PDF so we could read it in its entirity (plus, although the report is 72 pages long, only 44 of those pages are the actual report).