Open source software in a public sector of the USA

2016: New policy in the field of the open source software in a public sector

In March, 2016 the administration of U.S. President submitted the preliminary version of the bill of use of the open source software by the state departments. Market participants supported the new initiative.

According to the document published by the White House, the American public institutions can share with each other the source code for these or those projects with the purpose of increase in their efficiency and disposal of need to develop a product again.

To the American state agencies will permit to exchange the open source software

Within the pilot program the state agencies which are taking part in exchange of source codes will have to write less than 20% of the code, and they will acquire the unlimited rights to use of software.

According to the federal Chief information officer Tony Scott, exchange of source codes between state agencies will allow to save taxpayers money as it will be possible to avoid expenses on creation of identical programs.

At the same time the software created third-party to developers and vendors especially for the federal government is not subject to obligatory public distribution. However some share of source codes is going to be published nevertheless.

The bill of the federal open source software will undergo public discussion till April 11, 2016. Administrative and budget management at the U.S. President (Office of Management and Budget, OMB) intends to prepare economic evaluation of influence of this innovation for the middle of 2016.^[1]

The U.S. Government confirmed the truth which the IT industry built two decades: open source software and its development lead to acceleration of development of innovations — Jim Zemlin, the chief executive of Linux Foundation says. — It shows how the most advanced and crucial infrastructure is under construction. We are glad to see that the authorities took one more step to transparency and efficiency due to Open Source use.

Quickly, cheap, safely: The Ministry of Defence of the USA selects the open source software

Analysts of the Center of new American security (Center for a New American Security, CNAS) at the end of August, 2016 issued the report on use of the software with the open code in the Ministry of Defence of the USA^[2]. In it experts estimate the current level of use of the open source software in department and recommend to it to invest more in such software.

The open source software is used in the Ministry of Defence of the USA long ago. The US general in resignation Hugh Shelton says that he for the first time learned about such software in 1994. Then, during operation on fight against a revolution to Haiti, the White House requested to send information in a specific format. Proprietary software which was used by army did not support such format. Then one of military of aircraft used the open source software which allowed to send information to the White House in the form in which it was necessary. After that the general came to a conclusion that it is necessary to study a question of application of the open source software more.

Open software is used in many systems of department: "The Ministry of Defence of the USA – one of the largest users of the Open source software in the world. Each tactical machine in army uses at least one program component with the open code. It is pleasant to see that open source is widely used in the ministry, but it is possible to make much more", - quote in Hugh Shelton's report.

The military of the American aircraft participating in missions of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle train on a ground station of management. In Predator Linux is used

Different groups in the Ministry of Defence so often use open source in the projects that the national security Agency created the own page on the hosting website for projects open source of GitHub, and DAPRA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the agency of the advanced defense research projects) at the Ministry of Defence created the own software catalog.

Among examples of systems where the open source software is used, - the solution for automation of planning of aviation missions, the system of continuous near aviation support which works at Android OS, the unmanned aerial vehicles Predator, Reaper and ground stations which work at Linux. In the latter case migration on Linux happened after in systems working under Windows attacked a virus.

At the same time, application of the Open source software in the Ministry of Defence of the USA still has separate, non-systemic character, authors of the report note. Use of the Open source software, according to them, can bring a number of benefits. Among them authors of the report mention the following:

• Deployment of application programs on open platforms, such as operating systems, DBMS, middleware, allows to create the specialized systems quicker, more flexibly and at lower price, than based on proprietary.
• The nature of activity of the Ministry of Defence assumes its exposure to the most difficult technology calls and threats, and therefore it has the greatest resources for development of technologies, than any other. Department can share the developments with other divisions of the government, increasing their level of security from effects of cyber attacks. It keeps within one of the missions of the ministry – protection of the state against cyberthreats.
• More effective joint development of the international systems which, for example, are used, in weapon for carrying out transaction together with allies, the systems of communications, observations, etc. Use of open licenses softwares, instead of proprietary, at joint developments in many cases allows to overcome the difficulties connected with export control and provides big flexibility of use and modification of software.
• Using open components, new IT vendors can quicker develop the solutions. It will lead to increase in the competition among software suppliers for the military systems.
• It is more than opportunities for innovations. As Google and Facebook, for example, participate in projects on software development with the open code, increasing thus the opportunities, and the Ministry of Defence can get advantages, participating in external difficult projects, authors of the report believe.

The American military uses the tablet based on Android OS for targeting of air blow

In the report also a number of the factors constraining more active use of open source of solutions in the Ministry of Defence is described. Among them – conviction of some persons that use of open licenses will allow the opponent to see and change the code of the used systems, difficulties with receiving such software because of features of the operating contract system of the Ministry of Defence. However the main obstacle in the document is called the cultural factor.

The Ministry of Defence is a big bureaucracy. Methods of the open source software, though are used widely in the industry, including, in the defense systems, still are not considered as the commonly accepted practice in the Pentagon. It is difficult to change it. Wrong and unreasonable ideas of the open source software create confusion and concern. It conducts to the fact that project managers, logistics specialists and a key element simply avoid the open source software and do not consider it seriously, said in the report.

Authors of the report note that in the Ministry of Defence in general not everything is smooth with processes of acquisition, creation and support of software. From here such problems as, for example, delays of creation of the military systems because of hitches at the level of integration of software and also lack of understanding how many in total there is everything the software portfolio which is available for department result. In the report it is noted that now software is not considered in department high-priority aspect of ensuring technical superiority though would have to.

In the report it is said that the calls connected with effective management of software are characteristic not only for the Ministry of Defence – they are relevant for all American government. One of methods to improve a situation in the White House see wider dissemination of the Open source software. For this purpose in August, 2016 the White House published federal policy of the USA on the source code.

The document orders that the new software developed at the expense of the federal budget could be used widely afterwards in all structures of the federal government. Reuse of software will bring considerable benefit to the American taxpayers due to expense reduction, including - duplicative costs for the same software and also will reduce dependence on vendors? initiators of such policy consider.

In the report on the IT budget of the Ministry of Defence for 2017 the analysis and prototyping of cloud services and the Open source software for their integration and ensuring compatibility with the current resources of department^[3] is registered as one of the main directions requiring financing].

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