Free/Open Source Software Open Standards

Nah Soo Hoe

3/28/2008
(Original Publish Date: 6/1/2006)

FOSS, based on Open Standards, provides governments with a sustainable and sufficiently robust software model that fosters collaboration and ever-increasing innovation. In addition to the obvious cost advantage for acquisition, the ongoing operational expense will also contribute to lowering the cost of government. By engaging the worldwide open source community, governments can benefit from each others’ efforts and share applications that each have built. Remember, every government does the same things: collects taxes, provides assistance to those citizens in need, register births, deaths, marriages and motor vehicles, houses prison inmates and issues drivers’ licenses. So why do individual governments continue to build applications on their own and most often do a very poor job of it? By incorporating the best tenets of FOSS, increased collaboration and innovation, governments working together can create meaningful value for their citizens and for each other.