john scott: mil-oss

WHY THE GOVERNMENT IS EVOLVING TO ‘OPEN’

Content.gov 2013 Conference March 5, 2013 John Scott [email protected] @johnmscott

1. Why is the gov opening?

§  People §  Technology §  Process

Trends: People

Employees & Citizens: §  Impatient (generational) §  Raised on open and free development tools/sites/portals

Developers: §  Good ones are lazy §  Good ones don’t want to resolve completed problems

Trends: Technology

§  Need for Speed ú  Software development & change

§  Tooling ú  Best software development tools mainly OSS ú  OSS easiest available

§  Commoditization / maturity of OSS

OODA Loop

http://blog.projectwhitehorse.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2011/01/New-‐Picture-‐1.png

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OSS inside the Closed Tech OODA Loop

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/mcdp6/fig2.gif

Cycle moves faster for open technologies

C4 Software

Commercial Software

ISR Software / Hardware

What’s Special becomes Commodity

Good Tech Becomes Commodity

Gartner predicts that within 2010 25% of the overall software market will be Free Software-‐based, with roughly 12% of it “internal” to companies and administrations that adopt Free Software. The remaining market, still substantial, is based on several different business models, that monetize the software using different strategies. Gartner Group, “Open source going mainstream,” 2006

Example Savings

10 Source: OSDL, Stuart Cohen, GOSCON 2007

2. Where is the Gov?

§  3 stages: Use, modify & create §  Open data: shock troops of openness §  OSS the logistics/supply train

DATA

TECHNOLOGY

ACCESS

Open Continuum

USE MODIFY CREATE TO

RELEASE

INTERACT COMBINE

Gov Data about here

Gov Tech about here

Clos

ed

Full Access

& Ope

n

People & Tech

Gov Employees §  Workforce aging/retiring and not being replaced at same rate due to costs

Technology §  Lots of Legacy systems and code

Process (the bigger problem)

§  Policy, Regulations, Law §  Hardware vs. Software & Acquisitions

ú  WW2 & software development and tools

Key Issues in Technology Acquisitions

Key Point # 1: Measure Twice, Cut Once Acquisitions Processes based on one premise -‐ Measure Twice, Cut Once -‐ Industrial vs. Digital / Steel vs. Bits / Land Warfare vs. Cyber Key Point #2: Knowledge Monopolies Hardware: Enabling industry to have commercial rights to

hardware technologies (which requires factories, etc.) works Software: enabling a knowledge monopoly limits the

dissemination of knowledge about defense systems

Gov Intellectual Property Regime based in 20th (19th?) Century

16

4 x 6 foot wall chart

Government Software IP Knot

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Tactical IP: Good at tactical management of intellectual property on a programs basis Strategic IP: Bad: No DoD strategic policy on how the software ecosystem should function for us: i.e., how (as an enterprise) should software IP rights be exercised in DoD

* USER CANNOT CLEAN, FIX, MODIFY, OR UPGRADE

*

Non-starter for the military, but we allow in software?

LAW

§  House: Issa IT Reform Bill §  Senate 2012 Bill

ú  Supported use of OSS

POLICY

§  DOD CIO, OMB, NASA, CFPB… §  New @ NIH !

ú  NCIP’s Open-‐Development Strategy Enables Community-‐Driven Cancer Informatics Software Development

ú  http://ncip.nci.nih.gov/blog/2013/02/20/ncips-‐open-‐development-‐strategy-‐enables-‐community-‐driven-‐cancer-‐informatics-‐software-‐development/

DoD: OSS OK to use, it won’t hurt

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Open Source Software!=!

"software for which the human-readable source code is available

for use, study, re-use, modification, enhancement, and re-distribution by the users of that

software"*!

*Reference: 16 October 2009 memorandum from the DoD CIO, "Clarifying Guidance Regarding Open Source Software (OSS)"

Open Open Gov

DoD: Clarifying Guidance Regarding Open Source Software16 October 2009

Other .gov/.mil efforts

§  Dept of State: Tech@State on Open Source §  NASA Open Source Software Day

ú  http://www.slideshare.net/skytland/nasa-‐open-‐source-‐proceedings

§  SPAWAR/Atlantic: Open Source Day §  Veterans Affairs Vista

OSFA Reportcard

http://opensourceforamerica.org/

3. Where the gov will end up?

3 things not to do in public: 1.   Sex 2.   Math 3.   Experimentation

ú  Modern software built this way ú  Open data requires maturity and public

education

People

§  Aging workforce §  Younger gov’s/contractors coming in with turnover

Tech

§  Churn continues §  Opening continues §  Enterprise Automation

ú  Simplify systems deployment

§  Abstraction

Process

Prediction §  More outsourcing to save money

ú  Agencies to focus mission vice IT

§  Capability will be the Service

Off-‐the-‐Shelf Software Maintenance Strategies

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How to help?

Strategy §  CIOs: Focus on

ú  Increasing enterprise options ú  Enterprise automation

§  Educating COTRs §  Require review of OSS solutions

ú  Already a req, but ignored ú  At least use to negotiate

Wrap-‐up

Key Points

§  Open Source is not FREE §  Must (somehow) fund and sponsor development to keep the technology fresh, evolving and up-‐to-‐date

§  Either through subscriptions or services

Software is a Renewable Civilian/Military Resource (and we paid for it)

§  Software has become central to how the government conducts missions

§  For reliance on software to be a strength, the government must pursue an active strategy to manage its software portfolio and foster an internal culture of open interfaces, modularity and reuse

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How to Build a Capability Running Open Technology Development Projects Step 1: Determine reuse options Step 2: Identify the Projects to be Established Step 3: Choose and Apply a Common License Step 4: Establish Governance Step 5: Establish Collaboration Step 6: Create Project Technical Direction Step 7: Announcing Continuously Review Steps 1-7

Rules of the Road: 1.  Don’t Fork OSS Solely for Government

Use 2.  Open Standards 3.  Continuous Delivery 4.  Simplify Intellectual Rights Management

OSS Winning…

Its just not evenly distributed

(across government)

Thanks!

OSS Maturity: Certified to DoD 5015.02 standard for records management

MILITARY OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (MIL-OSS) HTTP://MIL-OSS.ORG

John Scott, RadiantBlue Tech. Inc. [email protected] [email protected], 240.401.6574