OSS Procurement FAQ: Part 1

At the Code for America Summit last week, I introduced to the assembled community of civic technologists and supporters the Civic Commons Legal and Procurement Issues Guide as another tool in the reuse of “code.” It’s interesting to discover through the reuse of software code that there is an inherent ability to reuse another kind of code – regulations, policies and best practices of technology procurement. While it might seem that something less automated, such as procurement best practices and legal risk analysis, would not lend itself to being easily reused, in fact, many government staff are asking the same questions about the procurement process around open source software. These are questions that have answers, or at least, a best practice. But, the answers have not been easily accessible and able to be iterated upon until now.

Part of maximizing the reuse of anything is lowering the barrier to reuse and contribution. But, until mind reading technology comes along and makes knowledge transmission effortless, we’re tackling this issue with some traditional methods – blogging and publicity. The insights shared below follow from dozens of interviews with OSS and procurement experts, the review of more than 7o written articles and reference to more than 10 government policies. So, without further ado, we’d like to share some of the most popular questions that government staff have asked and where those answers can be found in the legal guide...