Text 12063, 90 rader
Skriven 2006-07-11 12:48:14 av /m (1:379/45)
Ärende: Open source in the national interest
============================================
From: /m <mike@barkto.com>


http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2006/07/open_source_in.html

===
"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an
idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo.

So states a report from the Department of Defense's Advanced Systems and
Concepts Office, which recommends that the DoD move to a roadmap to adopt open
source and open standards, maintaining that such a move is not only in the US
national interest, but in the interests of US national security.

The 79-page report proposes that the DoD adopt what it calls "open technology
development," which incorporates open source methodologies and open standards,
but also takes into account the fact that the DoD has systems that it would
rather keep secret.

"It is important, in the context of this report and resulting policy
discussions, to distinguish between OSS and OTD, since the latter may include
code whose distribution may be limited to DoD, and indeed may only be
accessible on classified networks," states the report, before maintaining that
OTD does also not "impinge on the legal states" of commercially-developed
software.

What it does do is recommend the use of open source software, open standards,
and open source development methodologies within the DoD. According to the
report, this is in the national interest, as it holds the potential to reduce
software purchasing and development costs.

"Currently within DoD, there is no internal distribution policy or mechanism
for DoD developed and paid for software code. 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," it states.

"Other negative consequences include lock-in to obsolete proprietary
technologies, the inability to extend existing capabilities in months vs.
years, and snarls of interoperability that stem from the opacity and
stove-piping of information systems."

But it is also in the interests of national security. "The national security
implications of open technology development (OTD) are clear: increased
technological agility for warfighters, more robust and competitive options for
program managers, and higher levels of accountability in the defense industrial
base," it states.

"DoD needs to use open technology design and development methodologies to
increase the speed at which military systems are delivered to the warfighter,
and accelerate the development of new, adaptive capabilities that leverage
DoD’s massive investments in software infrastructure."

The reports suggests that in order to make the most efficient use of internal
resources the DoD move to adopt open technology development, with an initial
focus on AS&C projects to develop the policies, procedures, requirements and
best practices for OTD.

The report indicates how forward thinking the DoD is in terms of software usage
models, and how far the debate has come since 2004, when anti-open source FUD
suggested it might be suggest to national security.

SCO Group CEO Darl McBride (who else) wrote to US senators and representatives
in January that year claiming that open source software threatened the US
economy, technological innovation, and even national security.

“I assert that open source software – available widely through the Internet –
has the potential to provide our nation’s enemies or potential enemies with
computing capabilities that are restricted by US law," he wrote.

Dan O’Dowd, CEO of embedded systems vendor Green Hills Software, took up the
baton in April 2004, claiming that embedded Linux is unsuitable for use in US
defense systems because it is open to contributions from the open source
community at large.

"Now that foreign intelligence agencies and terrorists know that Linux is going
to control our most advanced defense systems, they can use fake identities to
contribute subversive software that will soon be incorporated into our most
advanced defense systems," he said.

"Every day new code is added to Linux in Russia, China and elsewhere throughout
the world. Every day that code is incorporated into our command, control,
communications and weapons systems. This must stop."

===

 /m

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5
 * Origin: Barktopia BBS Site http://HarborWebs.com:8081 (1:379/45)