Open Source Seeks More Clout in Washington

Sean Michael Kerner | InternetNews.com | July 22, 2009

Is open source good for America? A group of over 70 leading open source vendors thinks so, and they've now formed an effort to lobby Washington and to promote open source for government use.
The Open Source for America coalition is made up of over 50 member groups including Red Hat, Linux Foundation, Oracle, Sun, Novell,Google, AMD, Mozilla and other key open source vendors.

The new group comes at a critical time for the U.S. government as stimulus funds begin to flow and as the new administration aims to open up the government to become more transparent. Open Source for America isn't specifically targeting stimulus funding, but it is aiming to make open source an issue and a key principle for how the U.S. government uses IT.

"A number of us representing companies, organization and academic institutions thought that the time was right to put together an organization that could be a voice for open source in Washington," Tom Rabon, executive vice president of corporate affairs at Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), toldInternetNews.com. 

"Historically, companies like mine that are involved in open source all had individual agendas, but there was never one organization that tried to put all the open source community under one tent to Washington and say we're the voice of open source -- and that's what we're trying to do."

Rabon added that with the new Obama administration, there has been a call for more open and transparent government, and open source is a technology approach that fits that bill.