The-Source.com

Open Source for America has announced nominations are open for its inaugural Open Source Awards Program.

There are 3 categories:

• Individual Contribution
• Open Source Project
• Open Source Government Deployment

Rules and guidelines here, but the main point is that nominees should support OFSA’s mission:

• to effectuate changes in U.S. Federal government policies and practices so that all the government may more fully benefit from and utilize free and open source software;

• to help coordinate these communities to collaborate with the Federal government on technology requirements;

• to raise awareness and create understanding among federal government leaders in the executive and legislative branches about the values and implications of open source software. OSFA may also participate in standards development and other activities that may support its open source mission.

I’m liking the White House on Drupal in either of the last two categories actually.

I’m actually fairly excited  about the OSFA and their mission, because I think the argument for Open Source and non-Proprietary standards is even stronger for public records than it is in the private sector (and I think it’s pretty damn strong in the private sector to start off with!)

The US Gov’t could close Bug #1 virtually overnight if it standardized on an Open Source platform. I know that won’t happen, but the American government is so influential, it is a very effective target for Free Software and Open Source promotion.