Navy CIO OKs open source systems
- By John Rendleman
- Jun 08, 2007
Open-source software is now an official option for all information technology systems in the Navy and Marine Corps, according to a guidance memo issued June 5 by the Department of the Navy's Office of the Chief Information Officer.
The Open-Source Guidance memo gives open-source platforms the same status as commercial off-the-shelf and government off-the-shelf software products, allowing Navy IT administrators to evaluate open-source code in acquisitions.
The department 'recognizes the importance of [open-source software] to the warfighter and the need to leverage its benefits throughout the [Department of the Navy],' according to the memo issued by Navy CIO Robert Carey.
In 2004, the Navy's previous CIO, David Wennergren, formed a working group to formulate the Navy's open-source software policy based on positive results from a cooperative research and development agreement between the Naval Oceanographic Office of the department's Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command and the industry-backed Open Source Software Institute.