New DoD Memo On Open Source Software - What does it all mean?

As a number of people have reported today, a new DoD memo was released that clarifies the DoD's usage/participation in OSS. See here, here and here for more details. And the actual memo should appear on the DoD's site soon. For now, you can read it from any one of the other posts I've linked to.

So, what does this memo mean?

• Well first of all this memo clarifies an earlier DoD memo on open-source that was released in 2003.
• And this memo dovetails with the OTD Technology Roadmap released in April 2006 that also outlines the reasons to use OSS within the DoD.
• And this memo dovetails with the open-sourcing of Opticks in December 2007, which was originally written for the DoD (disclaimer: I am a committer for Opticks).
• And this memo dovetails with the creation of software.forge.mil, a DoD only repository for implementing OSS practices within the DoD.
• And this memo dovetails with the open-sourcing of FalconView in June 2009.
• And this memo dovetails with the creation of the Mil-OSS working group and it's first meeting in August 2009.

I think you can see that momentum has been building and progress is being made. The OSS movement within the DoD hasn't stagnated from 2003 to 2009. So, why then is this memo so important? Because it is going to help remove some long-standing and problematic roadblocks and if you attended the Mil-OSS working group August session or join the Mil-OSS Google Group, you'll see there are still quite a few roadblocks.

So, jump in and help out. And by that I mean keep an eye out for the next Mil-OSS working group session in Spring 2010.