open source software (OSS)

See the following -

Is The Instrument Panel The Next Target For Open Source Software In Cars?

Libby Clark | Linux.com | May 20, 2013

The In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) System has received much of the focus from open source software initiatives in the automotive industry so far with the Automotive Grade Linux working group and the GENIVI alliance. [...] Read More »

Is the US Finally Ready to Get Serious About Biodefense?

Biological and other disaster threats - whether accidental, driven by forces of nature, or intentional - pose fairly grave risks to the United States and the world. Situational awareness has been a conspicuous topic ever since the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax scare that followed shortly thereafter. Since then we have experienced numerous disasters: health impacts of major weather events such as hurricanes and earthquakes, new virus outbreaks like Ebola in Africa, raging wildfires on the West Coast (I live in California), and the ever-present threat of pandemic flu which a hundred years ago infected some 500 million people across the globe and killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, according to the Center for Disease Control and Preparedness (CDC). But since the initial flurry of public health preparedness funds in the ensuing several years after the 9/11 attacks, this topic has not had a high priority at CDC nor the funding necessary to implement it successfully.

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Issa Open Source Language Comes Under Criticism

David Perera | FierceGovernmentIT | December 5, 2012

Draft legislation proposed by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to overhaul federal information technology has drawn opposition for its section on open source software adoption. Read More »

Issa Proposes Legislation To Reboot Federal IT

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | September 20, 2012

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is floating proposed legislation that would drastically reform the way federal technology is purchased, including by granting agency chief information officers authority over their information technology budgets. Read More »

IT Acquisition Reform Bill Passes House with Open Source Provisions

Staff Writer | FedWeek | March 6, 2014

The House has passed the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act not long after the botched launch of the HealthCare.gov website, and attempting to better control how some $80 billion is spent on IT procurement each year. Read More »

It's the Ecosystem, Stupid

I've been writing for a while on topics related to product and supply chain management in the context of open source communities, and I've noticed a few consistent themes in my articles and blog posts. Most notable is the call for companies to move from the "not invented here" syndrome to a more externally focused view. After all, if so much innovation is taking place in open source projects, why not take advantage of it to the fullest extent possible? You can see this theme manifested in the following ways:

It's Time To Pay The Maintainers

Earlier this year, Tidelift conducted a survey of over 1,200 professional software developers and open source maintainers. We found that 83% of professional software development teams would be willing to pay for better maintenance, security, and licensing assurances around the open source projects they use. Meanwhile, the same survey found that the majority of open source maintainers receive no external funding for their work, and thus struggle to find the time to maintain their open source projects. So, to put what we learned succinctly...It's time to pay the maintainers. Not just because they deserve to be compensated for their amazing work creating the software infrastructure our society relies on (they do!). But also because there is a ready-made market of professional developers willing to pay for assurances they are in the best position to provide. Here's an idea for how to do it...

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Italian Genoa To Use Open Source 'Wherever Possible'

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission (EC) | June 20, 2013

The Italian city of Genoa is increasing its use of free and open source software, aiming to reduce its dependency on IT vendors. "The Municipality will favour the use of free software or open source, wherever possible", Genoa announced last week Friday. Read More »

Italy Is Latest To Promote Open Source Software In Public Procurements

Paul Brownell | OpenSource.com | January 22, 2014

In December, the Italian government issued final rules implementing a change to procurement law that now requires all public administrations in the country to first consider re-used or free software before committing to proprietary licenses. Importantly, the new rules include an enforcement mechanism, which can, at least in theory, annul decisions that do not follow these procedures. Read More »

Italy Posts Benchmark Open vs Closed Software

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission | January 10, 2014

The Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale (AGID) on Wednesday posted the criteria and guidelines on how to compare open source and proprietary software. The document is to help public administrations to give priority to free and open source solutions, and to the re-use of software paid for by public administrations. [...] Read More »

Italy's South Tyrol Starts Three-Year LibreOffice Migration

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission (EC) | June 20, 2013

The government of Italy's South Tyrol province this morning announced a plan to implement LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools, in all of its public administrations, including municipal administration and healthcare organisations, during the next three years. [...] Read More »

It’s Back: District Court Judge Revives SCO v IBM

Lee Hutchinson | Ars Technica | June 17, 2013

Sad that Game of Thrones has wrapped up its third season? Looking for some drama to fill the time? We've got just the thing for you. One of the Internet's longest-running and most-hated lawsuits is back: SCO v. IBM has been reopened by Utah district court judge David Nuffer. Read More »

Jamaican Ministry Of Health Is The First To Adopt Free And Open Source Health System Nationwide

Gabriela Brenes | opensource.com | November 28, 2013

With a bright Caribbean sun and an even brighter welcoming crew, GNU Health unshipped in a new bay recently. In cooperation with the Jamaican Ministry of Health, a group from GNU Solidario visited the country and officially inaugurated the project of deploying GNU Health, a free health and hospital information system, within their public health care system. Read More »

JFrog And Black Duck Software Partner, Announce Integration Of Artifactory Pro And Black Duck Suite

Press Release | Black Duck Software, JFrog | April 3, 2013

Black Duck Software, the trusted partner for open source software adoption, management and governance, and JFrog, creator of the Artifactory Repository Management Solution, today announced a partnership under which JFrog Artifactory Pro is integrated with Black Duck Suite, providing unprecedented levels of control, efficiency and visibility throughout the development lifecycle when using open source components. Read More »

Jim Zemlin: 2014-The Open Source Tipping Point

For the last ten years open source has expanded into more and more segments of the computing industry. But as we review 2014, a new story emerges: software development has fundamentally shifted toward an open source model. Especially for the infrastructure software used for scale-out computing, open source is the de facto choice; in fact, it’s virtually impossible to find examples of scale-out infrastructure that is not open source. Read More »