DOD Releases Open Source Development Guide

The Department of Defense (DOD) has released a landmark guide for using open-source and open-standards technology to develop software in the U.S. military.

The 68-page guide, "Open Technology Development: Lessons Learned and Best Practices for Military Software," aims to "help U.S. government personnel and contractors implement open technology development (OTD) for software within government projects, particularly in defense," according to the guide, which has been posted in its entirety on the Scribd website and is available for free download.

The Assistant Secretary of Defense, the DOD Chief Information Officer, and the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics released the document to encourage military developers to use OTD as a way to keep pace with the "ever-changing mission demands of military operations" by building and re-using software they can update themselves.

"Imagine if only the manufacturer of a rifle were allowed to clean, fix, modify, or upgrade that rifle," they wrote in the document. "The military often finds itself in this position with taxpayer funded, contractor developed software: one contractor with a monopoly on the knowledge of a military software system and control of the software source code."