Open Source By Default?

“Over the last ten years, Open Source has become unremarkable. I think that’s a great achievement. We no longer argue about whether it’s secure or not, or whether it’s safe to use. We focus now on how best to use Open Source to get the best value for every tax dollar,” said Gunnar Hellekson, Chief Technology Strategist for Red Hat’s US Public Sector Group.

He noted that for the past couple of years, Open Source software has been helping public sector organisations become more innovative, more agile and more cost-effective by building on the collaborative efforts of Open Source communities.

The National Security Agency, for example, has used open source to reduce the cost of its high-security systems to drive better security. Similarly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a relatively new agency — has even gone as far as being ‘Open Source by default’, by releasing everything it does to the community.