Data/Services Strategy and Open Source

Software Daniel.Risacher@osd.mil

9 Jul 08

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This briefing is a declared work of the United States Government and is not subject to copyright protection.

Open Source Software

What is it? Policy: Open Source Software (OSS) OSS for Data/Services OSS for Communities

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OSS: What is it? “Open Source Software is software for which

the human-readable source code is available for use, study, re-use, modification, enhancement, and re-distribution by the users of that software.”

Linux, Solaris, Darwin (OS X), Java, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Firefox, Apache HTTPD, Apache Tomcat, Apache Axis, Apache Derby, Glassfish, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Gnu Compiler Collection (GCC), JBoss, MediaWiki, Drupal, Joomla!, Subversion, OpenOffice.org, Zimbra, FreebXML, Lucene, OpenLayers, Mailman, Liferay, BerkleyDB, SQLite3, Hibernate, eXist, Hadoop, OpenLDAP, ffmpeg, GIMP, Blender, BRL-CAD, Pidgin, OpenFire, GForge, SpamAssassin, Emacs, Eclipse, NetBeans, jUDDI, … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Policy: Open Source Software 28 May 2003 memo by DoD CIO (J. Stenbit)

– OSS is okay to use:“DoD Components acquiring, using or developing OSS must ensure that the OSS complies with the same DoD policies that govern Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) and Government off the Shelf (COTS) software.”

5 Jun 2007 memo by DoN CIO (R. Carey)– OSS is COTS:

“The misconception that OSS is neither a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) nor government off-the-shelf (GOTS) solution has hindered the DoN's ability to leverage the benefits of OSS methodology. … DON commands will treat OSS as COTS when it meets the definition of a commercial item [per Title 41]”

Forthcoming memo by DoD CIO – Still in draft

Q: Isn’t OSS forbidden? A: No. DoDI 8500.2, Information Assurance (IA) Implementation:“DCPD-1 Public Domain Software Controls

Binary or machine executable public domain software products and other software products with limited or no warranty such as those commonly known as freeware or shareware are not used in DoD information systems unless they are necessary for mission accomplishment and there are no alternative IT solutions available. Such products are assessed for information assurance impacts, and approved for use by the DAA. The assessment addresses the fact that such software products are difficult or impossible to review, repair, or extend, given that the Government does not have access to the original source code and there is no owner who could make such repairs on behalf of the Government. “ (emphasis added)

This control does not apply to Open Source Software (per author of the language in the DoD Information Assurance Policy directorate)

Unfortunately, this is often misinterpreted by local DAAs.

Open Source Software for Data/Services Strategies

Open Source Software can provide the “guts” for net-centric data services For example:

– Apache Tomcat is a Java Servlet & JSP Container used by MDA

– Apache AXIS is a “SOAP” server used by MDA, FFATA

– Apache UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture) used by AMPS

– Lucene is a text search engine library – OpenLayers is a Javascript mapping application– freebXML Registry is an OASIS ebXML Registry and Java API for XML

Registries API [JAXR] used by DoD Metadata Registry

– Xalan-Java library implements XSLT and XPath– FalconView (soon?)

Open Source Software and Community Building MediaWiki

– used by Wikipedia, Intellipedia, & MDA Drupal – “community plumbing”

– content management platform / blog Zimbra – webmail and collaboration tools

– used by ugov.gov Liferay – portal software

– used by osera.gov Mailman – mailing list management & archiving OpenFire & Spark – chat server & client (XMPP)

Open Source Software

What is it? Policy: Open Source Software (OSS) OSS for Data/Services OSS for Communities Screenshots

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Liferay Portal, runs on Glassfish and MySQL (JEE5 RI)

Browser based site, user and content management

– Fine grained user and role based access control of places/pages/portlets

– Simple URL’s, public /web or private /group /community/projects/activities

TortoiseSVN, Windows Subversion client Access SVN from Windows explorer and can perform all

the version control related operations using TortoiseSVN

OpenLayers screenshot