[PublicPolicy] Open Sourcing Government Code

Fri Jun 5 23:59:25 UTC 2020

Hi Brent,

As others have pointed out here, getting government to accept any open source code (voting or otherwise) is sometimes reasonably hard.  The reason I took the role at OASIS is that my personal experience in helping develop and build out forge.mil showed me that procurement processes that heavily favored standards were one (of many) parts to the challenge.

If there was a standard for these voting systems backed by open source code (one of the things we are trying to advocate for with our ability to take open source projects through de jure standards recognition process), it potentially could help grease those wheels.  It most likely isn’t the only thing that’s needed though - continued policy reform is critical for these areas.

Some additional information on how we try to bring open source projects through standards is here: https://github.com/oasis-open-projects/documentation/blob/master/guides/submitting-for-standards-approval.md <https://github.com/oasis-open-projects/documentation/blob/master/guides/submitting-for-standards-approval.md>

Thanks.

--- 
Guy Martin
Executive Director
guy.martin at oasis-open.org
Calendar: https://calendly.com/guy-martin
+1 408-489-1681

> On May 29, 2020, at 4:52 PM, Brent Turner <turnerbrentm at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Guy !! 
> 
> For the past 20 years we have been  pushing the fed and state legislators and jurisdictions toward the creation and deployment of open source election systems. We worked within the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology and have attempted to garner national press via former CIA Director James Woolsey and other high profile allies. Unfortunately it seems every time we gain some ground Microsoft and " those who bob in their wake " show up to  shut the open source voting system progress down . 
> 
> We managed to start an open source voting project in L.A. but Microsoft and OSET showed up to drive it into the ditch. We also  see Secretaries of State apparently corrupted along with regular office holders to defeat these open source efforts . "Open -washers" andother nefarious types   seem to control the voting rights activist community 
> 
> That being stated, what do you think is the best course of action to encourage govt intelligence and procurement folks to accept GPL open source for voting ? 
> 
> Best-
> 
> Brent 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 9:26 AM Guy Martin <guy.martin at oasis-open.org <mailto:guy.martin at oasis-open.org>> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
> 
> I’m Guy Martin, the Executive Director for OASIS Open.  I’ve been around Open Source for longer than I care to remember (heh), having helped start open source consulting at Red Hat, as well as helping start the well-conceived but ill-fated forge.mil <http://forge.mil/> system for US DoD.  Though we didn’t get that where we all wanted it to go, it did help pave the way for some of the work happening now in government open source in the US.  I was also fortunate enough to help start Open Source Program Offices (OSPO’s) at Samsung and Autodesk before coming to OASIS.
> 
> Thanks Sean for mentioning OMF - we are very proud at OASIS to host the OMF and concur that this is a great example of practical work that involves both local government stakeholders and businesses in a fairly unique foundation setting.  I too am happy to make any introductions to the OMF folks, as I know both their Executive Director and two of the principles (John Ellis and Geoff Arnold) who helped contribute the initial set of work.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> --- 
> Guy Martin
> Executive Director
> guy.martin at oasis-open.org <mailto:guy.martin at oasis-open.org>
> Calendar: https://calendly.com/guy-martin <https://calendly.com/guy-martin>
> +1 408-489-1681
> 
> 
>> On May 29, 2020, at 8:56 AM, sean roberts <seanroberts66 at gmail.com <mailto:seanroberts66 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Shimon and Alex, 
>> 
>> Take a look at the Open Mobility Foundation https://www.openmobilityfoundation.org/ <https://www.openmobilityfoundation.org/> and how Los Angeles has been collaborating on this open source project. 
>> 
>> My experience is that open source is a serious commitment and culture change for any organization. You need examples and models to follow. OMF is a practical, real world, current problem solving example. 
>> 
>> I can make some introductions and/or explain more if you find their work interesting. 
>> 
>> Sean Roberts, Chief Technologist
>> 925.980.4729 Lincoln Network, LincolnPolicy.org <http://lincolnpolicy.org/>
>> schedule through https://calendly.com/sarob/ <https://calendly.com/sarob/>
>> On May 29, 2020, 4:12 AM -0700, Alexander Sander <alex.sander at fsfe.org <mailto:alex.sander at fsfe.org>>, wrote:
>>> Hi Shimon, hi all,
>>> 
>>> I am Alex, also working for FSFE.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>>> Why should a government open source their code?
>>>> 
>>>> That's a question we received a lot during the years. Meanwhile as a
>>>> first step we often use this short 3:37 minute video on
>>>> https://publiccode.eu/#about <https://publiccode.eu/#about> available in English, French, German,
>>>> Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and we would love to have more
>>>> languages. (The Open Letter there is also supported by many
>>>> organisations whom I suspect here on the list
>>>> https://publiccode.eu/openletter/ <https://publiccode.eu/openletter/> .)
>>>> 
>>>> After this initial argumentation about the "why" we often use the
>>>> brochure: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure <https://fsfe.org/campaigns/publiccode/brochure> (in English,
>>>> German, Czech, and Brazilian Portuguese) providing some more background
>>>> about software freedom, some examples, etc.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> As the coordinator of this campaign I would like to give you a little
>>> more background information.
>>> 
>>> This campaign started two and half year ago with our website
>>> publiccode.eu <http://publiccode.eu/> and an open letter. We want legislation requiring that
>>> publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made
>>> publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it
>>> is public money, it should be public code as well.
>>> Until now, more than 28.000 individuals and more than 190 organisation
>>> signed our open letter. Also three administrations signed: Barcelona,
>>> Parliament of Asturias and Samtgemeinde Elbmarch. Also more and more
>>> administrations mention our demand in policy papers and parliaments vote
>>> in favour of Public Money, Public Code.
>>> 
>>> Also we have created a bunch of activities for the Free Software
>>> community to help. If you want to learn more about the campaign
>>> framework you can watch a talk by Matthias and Bonnie [1]
>>> 
>>> Also, if you haven't done yet, please feel free to add your signature
>>> and spread the word.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Best
>>> 
>>> Alex
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> [1] https://fahrplan.chaos-west.de/36c3/talk/LF3YYH/ <https://fahrplan.chaos-west.de/36c3/talk/LF3YYH/>
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Alexander Sander - EU Public Policy Programme Manager
>>> Free Software Foundation Europe
>>> Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany | t +49-157 923 472 12
>>> Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 | (fsfe.org/join <http://fsfe.org/join>)
>>> 
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