Open Government Austin

Using open source and free software...

Scott Brown, City employee and open source / free software advocate, has just posted this comprehensive plan on how the City can implement the Open Government Online amendment by using or modifying existing open source software packages. For those readers unfamiliar with the term, "open source / free software" describes a type of software that allows anyone to change it (not something normally allowed) for free. Yes, that means in this case both free as in beer and free as in freedom.

Open source software was an inspiration for parts of this amendment. By allowing anyone to see how the software works, and to change mistakes or add suggestions, the open source process creates better, more flexible software. The OGO amendment aims to do the exact same thing. By allowing all Austinites to have access, we will have a better, more flexible City government.

posted by opengovaustin @ Tuesday, March 14, 2006