[CAVO] Fwd: DHS remarks re: OS ??

Mon Apr 18 18:01:27 UTC 2016

A few years ago I was an advisor to DHS (actually FEMA) about software they developed to prepare for and recover from catastrophic events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc. 

DHS was quite comfortable with open source then, or at least that was our committee's recommendation to them. Would any of you like that software? :-) 

Nobody important in the U.S. government actually disapproves of open source any more. Nevertheless, there remain bureaucratic and funding obstacles in any software project including our electronic elections proposals. On balance, consider the current U.S. administration to be our allies and not our enemies.

/Larry 

Lawrence Rosen

Rosenlaw & Einschlag ( <http://www.rosenlaw.com/> www.rosenlaw.com) 

3001 King Ranch Rd., Ukiah, CA 95482

Cell: 707-478-8932 

LinkedIn:  <http://lnkd.in/D9CWhD> http://lnkd.in/D9CWhD 

From: Brent Turner [mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 9:15 AM
To: CAVO <CAVO at opensource.org>
Subject: [CAVO] Fwd: DHS remarks re: OS ??

Good work CAVO and allies-  

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chris Jerdonek <chris.jerdonek at gmail.com <mailto:chris.jerdonek at gmail.com> >
Date: Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: DHS remarks re: OS ??
To: Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> >

Amazing -- check out the reversal!

https://github.com/WhiteHouse/source-code-policy/issues/222

Excerpt:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) strongly supports the proposed Federal Source Code Policy. We believe moving towards Government-wide reuse of custom-developed code and releasing Federally-funded custom code as open source software has significant financial, technical, and cybersecurity benefits and will better enable DHS to meet our mission of securing the nation from the many threats we face.

--Chris

On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 9:52 PM, Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> > wrote:

Done on both -cobbled together 

On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 9:35 PM, Chris Jerdonek <chris.jerdonek at gmail.com <mailto:chris.jerdonek at gmail.com> > wrote:

Brent, I don't see your reply in the comments:

https://github.com/WhiteHouse/source-code-policy/issues/152

--Chris

On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 9:31 PM, Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> > wrote:
> I posted a reply  --  Best it comes from me so as to keep you legits
> insulated from shrapnel
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 9:23 PM, Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> >
> wrote:
>>
>> I don't know if David will as he works with DHS et al and may not want to
>> out himself--
>>
>> I will do it if no one else will
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 9:07 PM, Chris Jerdonek <chris.jerdonek at gmail.com <mailto:chris.jerdonek at gmail.com> >
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Brent, someone should correct DHS's comments on the record on the GitHub
>>> issue. Can David do it?
>>>
>>> In particular, the stuff about FOUO.
>>>
>>> Btw, it's ironic that DHS provided their comments in the form of an Excel
>>> spreadsheet, which is itself a proprietary format that requires Microsoft
>>> software to read natively.
>>>
>>> --Chris
>>>
>>> On Friday, April 15, 2016, Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: David RR Webber (XML) <david at drrw.info <mailto:david at drrw.info> >
>>>> Date: Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 6:03 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [CAVO] DHS remarks re: OS ??
>>>> To: CAVO <cavo at opensource.org <mailto:cavo at opensource.org> >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Brent - no this is just silliness / paranoia.
>>>>
>>>> Sensitive software is listed as FOUO - For Official Use Only - and that
>>>> information is restricted internal only.
>>>>
>>>> There are review procedures in place. They are not going to publish
>>>> anything that would be an at risk disclosure.
>>>>
>>>> I see this is just drum beating to ensure that there is no rolling back
>>>> in these areas.
>>>>
>>>> Having said that - I have seen deliberate abuse of this - where parties
>>>> label non-sensitive items - to prevent access / criticism of the content
>>>> involved - and/or to continue funding of pet projects that are clearly
>>>> worthless - or have public open solutions already in place - but we're
>>>> paying to make a poor substitute government one.
>>>>
>>>> Worse - duplicate efforts in different government areas are essentially
>>>> building the same thing.  The GAO should be all over this - but again - lack
>>>> of transparency and correct labelling of purpose - prevents correlation -
>>>> and cross-pollenization.
>>>>
>>>> Ironically there is probably a need for such government open source and
>>>> internal sharing more than public!!!
>>>>
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>>> Subject: Re: [CAVO] DHS remarks re: OS ??
>>>> From: Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> >
>>>> Date: Thu, April 14, 2016 11:37 pm
>>>> To: CAVO <CAVO at opensource.org <mailto:CAVO at opensource.org> >
>>>>
>>>> Could it be that these remarks are not actually from the DHS.. ??
>>>>
>>>> Or could it be that a vendor interested party has managed to provide
>>>> misinformation to someone " up the ladder " ?
>>>>
>>>> Thoughts ??
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 6:00 PM, Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com <mailto:turnerbrentm at gmail.com> >
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> https://fcw.com/articles/2016/04/12/open-source-cyber.aspx?m=1
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>

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