I’ve been encouraged to see a strong level of support for the “Open Letter to Obama” released last week, which now has almost 100 signatures.
I’m really pleased to see the world’s most successful Linux distributions - Novell and Red Hat - join the list.
Why did this letter see such an influx of support so quickly? Some folks in the press have argued that it’s because each company has something to gain. No doubt, that is true at some level.
But more importantly, the support comes from companies, organizations and individuals who believe in the power of much more important concepts - collaboration, openness, and transparency. By developing software and igniting government projects through collaboration, new technologies will start to be adopted to build the digital infrastructure for a new century. This is beginning to permeate through public health departments and state agencies and will wind its way into a variety of state departments in the coming years.
Another point that I think needs clarifying, given the level of discussion that has resulted from the letter, is that the letter doesn’t suggest open source software be mandated. I don’t support mandates and I would never sign anything that says that. Rather, I support equal credence be given to open source software and proprietary software. Most importantly, I believe the collaborative model is the key. Regardless of how the end product is licensed or delivered, collaboration in development will accelerate deployments, facilitate interoperability among government departments, and increase knowledge among subject matter experts and developers through a traditional network affect.
While some folks still debate the merits of open vs proprietary software, I find it a tired conversation as I have always said that there will always be places for both and great solutions today that can only be delivered by one of them. What’s hard to dispute is the value of collaboration, which will be a catalyst for innovation and fuel a new generation of business applications.
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