from the maybe-they-do-get-it dept.
A major article in the New York Times ("Code Name: Mainstream – Can 'Open Source' Bridge the Software Gap?" by Steve Lohr, 28 August 2000) reports that a Presidential commission will recommend backing the Open Source software development model as an alternative path for addressing pressing national needs in the development of new information technologies.
According to the Times article, "the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee will recommend that the federal government back 'open source software as an alternate path for software development,' according to a draft copy of the report, which will be sent to the White House and published in a matter of weeks."
A few highlights fron the Times article:
In a report to President Clinton last year, a group of leading computer scientists warned that the nation faced a troubling "software gap."
The group, made up of corporate executives and university researchers, said that programmers simply could not keep pace with exploding demand for high-quality software — the computer code needed for everything from Internet commerce to nuclear weapons design. To bridge the gap, the group said, the nation must not only train more skilled programmers but also explore fresh, even radical, approaches to developing and maintaining software.
In a new report, the group, known as the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, will recommend that the federal government back "open source software as an alternate path for software development," according to a draft copy of the report, which will be sent to the White House and published in a matter of weeks.
"I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that the Internet and open-source initiatives are the free marketplace way of dealing with the extremely complex software issues we are facing," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, an I.B.M. executive and a member of the presidential advisory committee.
