An Agency that Learns

What "open source first" really means for a government agency.

The Accumulo Challenge, Part I

The dozens of software projects launched in the wake of Google's Big Table and Map Reduce papers have changed the way we handle large datasets. Like many organizations, the NSA began experimenting with these "big data" tools and realized that the open source implementations available at the time were not addressing some of their particular needs. They decided to embark … Continue reading The Accumulo Challenge, Part I →

History of Open Source in Government

[This is a writeup I did as a companion to the History of Open Source in Government Timeline. Karl Fogel and I will be presenting more findings from the timeline at OSCON this year.] It is difficult to imagine the Federal government moving in one well-coordinated direction on any matter, and so it has been … Continue reading History of Open Source in Government →

FedRAMP for the impatient.

FedRAMP is how clouds will be authorized for use in the Federal government. With it, the government to authorize a cloud for use just once, instead of forcing each agency to authorize the same cloud over and over. The FedRAMP program office published a CONOPS document, which sketches out how everything will work. It's tedious. … Continue reading FedRAMP for the impatient. →

Obama, McNealy, and Cognitive Dissonance

Gene Quinn's recent post titled "What Happened to the Obama Open Source Initiative?" criticizes, in turns, open source software, Scott McNealy, the Obama administration, and "business newbies" who want to use the open source software model. Early in the Administration, President Obama asked Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to prepare a report on … Continue reading Obama, McNealy, and Cognitive Dissonance →

The Hazards of Open Data Exceptionalism

The prospect of funding cuts for e-Gov initiatives like data.gov, USAspending.gov and friends is worrying. Everyone should join the Sunlight Foundation's effort to Save the Data. At the same time, this is a good opportunity for reflection. There's no doubt that the proliferation of Open Government websites has been a great first step for transparency … Continue reading The Hazards of Open Data Exceptionalism →

Open Source in Government: Who was first?

Brian Purchia of Burson-Marsteller has a post over on GovFresh about the value of open source to unions. His argument pivots on cost-savings. I think you could make a more expansive argument that includes risk mitigation and innovation, but describing the advantage to unions is an interesting angle I hadn't seen before. I noticed that … Continue reading Open Source in Government: Who was first? →