DIY Government: Open Source for America

Today, in conjunction with the O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON) in San Jose, Calif., more than 70 companies, academic institutions, communities, related groups and individuals announced the formation ofOpen Source for America, an organization that will serve as a unified voice for the promotion of open source software in the U.S. Federal Government arena.

[...] Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media presented the program during his keynote at OSCON on Wednesday morning, calling it an unprecedented opportunity for people to get involved with their government. He also tried to dispel the misunderstanding that exists that Gov 2.0 is all about social media.

He explained that Gov 2.0 is also about transparency, rapid application development and procurement processes that allow approval of free software for agencies without getting mired in the usual DC bureaucracy.