An Open Letter to Barack Obama: Why Open Source is the Solution for Our Open Government

Dear President Obama,

I have read with great interest your technology agenda and am pleased by reports that you have asked for an official statement on the advantages the government may gain by using open source.

As a long-standing advocate of open source software and CEO of Jitterbit, the prospect of our nation relying on open source technology is an exciting one. Open source software can offer many of the benefits of traditionally developed products, such as strength, ease of use and professional support, while reaping the additional advantages of flexible customization and rapid results at a fraction of the cost of proprietary closed-source competitors.

Discussion has already begun around possible applications of open source within your administration. I urge you to consider the massive integration problems our government faces as it moves to a more open stance. For starters, not only will the proposed Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs) need to be accessible to doctors and hospitals nationwide (all running on different systems), those records will need to be usable from both inside and outside the firewalls that protect patient information while maintaining national standards for compliance in data management.

Beyond EHRs, you will need to consider the myriad other ways that our open government will need to integrate data and applications. Interagency efforts at home and abroad will require data be shared freely between different systems and technologies at the FBI, CIA and INS – not to mention the extended branches of our military.

The tenets of Open Source align directly with your sensibilities and your platform – transparency, accountability, and the power of community organizing. The strength of Open Source lies in the fact that the development is fully transparent and the community is involved in shaping the features and functionality that go into the final product. As a result, customers know exactly what they are getting and where future improvements will be made. Just as we need an administration that is held accountable by the people so do we need vendors who deliver on what the US Government and its citizens pay for.

You understand the problems we face as a nation. Here at Jitterbit, we understand how open source technology provides custom-fit solutions for integration issues of any size. Jitterbit’s open source community of talented developers, IT administrators and business analysts are ready, willing and able to assist America in making this transition to a more open and technologically advanced government.

Best regards,
Sharam Sasson
Chairman and CEO, Jitterbit

P.S. Open Source is already being used in quite a few government agencies.

NASA co-designed our LDAP connectivity and uses Jitterbit to authenticate over 120,000 employee and contractor profiles across multiple systems.

The State of Iowa uses Jitterbit to drive accountability through offsets programs that tie together local, state and federal court and vendor documents to ensure debts are repaid before payment for vendor services is issued.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is the federal agency that advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy. ACHP uses Jitterbit to synchronize its communications to contacts and distribution lists.