Storm over Open Source looks Unabated, US Government goes Open Source to build Open Source Version of “data.gov”

“The Future is Open Source”, as predicted many times on the Internet, now looks promising as the US government’s affair with Open Source continues to grow. In most recent developments, the US government has begun to open source pieces of data.gov. This is an important milestone not only for the Obama Administration to advance open and transparent government, but also for the open source community.

The open source version [of Data.gov] is being collaboratively developed by the US and Indian governments and its planned to launch the complete open-source code — called Open Government Platform — as early as 2012. As detailed in the report, this will enable governments across the world to create their own open government data sites.

Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel and Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra wrote the following in their jointly penned blog:

“The plan specifically called for an effort under the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue to produce “Data.gov-in-a-Box” -- an open source version of the United States’ Data.gov data portal and India’s India.gov.in document portal. The U.S. and India are working together to produce an open source version available for implementation by countries globally, encouraging governments around the word to stand up open data sites that promote transparency, improve citizen engagement, and engage application developers in continuously improving these efforts.  Technical teams from the U.S. and Indian governments have been working together since August of this year, with a planned launch of the open source product (which is now called the Open Government Platform (OGPL) to reflect its broad scope) in early 2012.”

It also brings good news to Drupal lovers, as Drupal has made inroads into government IT. This open source CMS has been chosen to build the Open Government platform which is a good choice to further strengthen the open source content management system.
 
Without a doubt, Open Source has already exploded on the enterprise level. The US government and national governments across Europe are also developing a public sector love affair with open source. But what does this initiative really mean for the world of open source?  
 
This also represents a positive challenge for the community as the products/solutions maturity, scalability and security are likely to come under scrutiny like never before. Auditing eyes of analysts and information security experts will also find more face-time now with Open Source solutions.
 
Hopefully, we can expect to further validate open source in open government and continue to brighten the future for Open Source Innovators and the community.