[Infowarrior] - Department of Defense study urges open source adoption

[Richard Forno]

Department of Defense study urges open source adoption
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060820-7545.html

8/20/2006 6:50:40 PM, by Ryan Paul

The Open Technology Development road map, a recently authored government
report, advises deputy undersecretary of Defense Sue Payton to integrate a
comprehensive open source strategy into defense department procurement and
development policies. Written by consultants for Advanced Systems & Concepts
in collaboration with major technology companies and the Open Source
Software Institute, the 79-page report advocates adoption of open
technologies, support for and adherence to open standards, and discusses
topics like licensing and software project governance.

The report argues that the standard practices associated with purchasing of
physical goods are not adequate or fully applicable to software. According
to the report, the DoD is "limiting and restricting the ability of the
market to compete for the provision of new and innovative solutions and
capabilities" by "treating DoD-developed software code as a physical good."
The report also points out that utilizing open source technology will force
the commercial software industry to respond with greater agility and
competitiveness.

In addition to promoting open technology, the authors of the report feel
that the DoD can improve interoperability while increasing efficiency and
productivity by creating standard policies for internal redistribution of
code developed by contractors. The report states that "by not enabling
internal distribution, DoD creates an arbitrary scarcity of its own software
code, which increases the development and maintenance costs of information
technology across the Department."

The report strongly cautions against proprietary vendor lock-in and
discusses at length how open standards can facilitate interoperability
between open source and proprietary systems, explaining that the DoD "needs
to evaluate the impact that locking into one set of proprietary standards or
products may have to its ability to react and respond to adversaries and
more importantly, to technological change that is accelerating regardless of
military conflict."

That theme is particularly prevalent, and the report heavily emphasizes the
need for technological agility in modern warfare, articulating various ways
that open technology can help the United States military "remain competitive
in a rapidly shifting technological landscape" and adequately defend against
"the disruptive technologies leveraged by our adversaries."

The report is a positive sign of technological progress within the
department of defense, but can the plan be implemented? There are sure to be
stumbling blocks along the way, particularly in contexts where legacy
proprietary systems have to be adapted to interface with modern, open
systems. The report attempts to address some of these problems, but such
things are more easily said than done. The plan certainly looks realistic,
and it includes what appear to be well=reasoned deployment goals that are
both clear and general.

The DoD study is also consistent with the results of other recent studies
conducted by independent organizations in private industry. Market research
group IDC has determined that open source software is gaining "enormous
momentum" and constitutes the "most significant all-encompassing and
long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980's."
IDC's recent study determined that open source software is used by over 70
percent of all developers worldwide, and IDC senior vice president of global
software research Anthony Picardi claims that "the real impact of open
source is to sustain innovations in mature software markets, thus extending
the useful life of software assets and saving customers money."

Open source software clearly has an important place in the future of
software development in both the private and public sectors. In light of the
FBI's costly repeated failures to modernize its own internal technology
infrastructure, law enforcement agencies should take note of the advantages
of open technology as described by Advanced Systems & Concepts in its report
for the Department of Defense, and consider pursuing similar strategies.