We’re Going To “Open Source” Our Government
There are two things about the title of this blog post that I want to point out. However, I’m going to wait until near the end to point them out.
For now, I’d like to mention a recent topic – the use of open source software by our government. I commented on Obama’s look at OSS on Webcraft last month. Since that time, part of the open source community published an open letter to Obama. Exciting stuff. Consider this quote from the open letter:
Open-source software is really just the tip of the iceberg in changing the way the government works. We want to encourage you to find ways for states and agencies to collaborate together on solutions that ultimately are better than the sum of all the individual efforts combined and at much lower cost to each participant. Open-source software encourages this type of collaboration by making the results of previous successful efforts available to others with similar goals and needs.
All around the US, folks are collaborating on ideas for a better government. There are many themes running among some of the ideas. Consider the notion of publishing all government spending. From another related but unique perspective, consider the notion of putting law under a version control system. There’s a trend here, and as it slowly starts to come together, it smells like OSS.
Folks like Clay Shirkey are doing a fabulous job of recognizing what is happening to our global culture as a result of the powerful communication tools we have today. There’s an epic shift going on that is allowing us to collaborate on a level never before possible. The fact that projects like Wikipedia CAN exist is simply revolutionary.
The open source software movement could not exist without the Internet. The movement is tapping our global intellectual pool and producing innovative technology both directly (by creating software) and indirectly (by challenging commercial developers). The movement is complicated and organic. The idea of leadership is being redefined. Consider the current Pirate Bay Trial:
“This is one of hundreds of examples of our management. It is how we have been operating since the very start. People have a hard time grasping it. They ask us; Who’s in charge? Who are you representing? What is your goal? What is your agenda? Why? When? How? These questions are wrongly posed and I am afraid I cant give you the right ones, that’s up to scholars later…
There is no formal organisation. Only work with joy and no to full accountability. This is how we PWN U ROSWALL. The work that is being produced by the peers of the Spectrial is probably ‘worth’ six-seven figures. Thing is one could never buy it. It’s a brave new world here, we are making a huge experiment.”
The Pirate bay aside, the OSS community shows that, somehow, large numbers of diverse humans are able to work together for a common goal without the motivation of financial gain. The beauty of successful open source applications such as Firefox, Linux, Open Office, Gimp, Blender, Apache, and thousands of other applications illustrates that – somehow – something is working.
Can this be applied to government? To business? Is business even going to remain relevant?
The open source movement is not happening particularly rapidly. However, it’s progressing steadily. It’s a powerful force that is open to anyone who wants to get behind it. The movement is blind to color, race, and class. The movement serves all equally and it does so without holding anyone back from success.
So, back to the title of this blog post. There are two things about this title that were very intentional. The first one is a bit obvious, so you may have noticed it. I wrote the title as a confident prediction. It is not a “what if” title.
The second intentional thing I did was to say “Our” instead of “The”. So often, we say “the Government” as if it was this aspect of reality we, ourselves, are not part of. However, the time will come to stop saying “they should ___” and begin to say “we should ___”. After all, if it is not “our” government, then who does it belong to?
Who knows how long it will take, but it has already begun.