US Veterans’ Administration Almost Gets FLOSS at Robert Pogson

“The US Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to upgrade the 25-year-old software that powers its nationwide health care system, and it’s betting real money that open source is the way to do it.

To that end, the agency is sponsoring a contest in which three entrants will be awarded prizes of up to $3m each, provided they can demonstrate software based on open source code and open APIs (application programming interfaces) that can successfully replace components of the VA’s current systems.”

see Help a US gov't agency switch to open source, win $3 million • The Register.

While asking for open standards and actually offering to pay for results, the VA wants ASL 2.0, not GPL. That may be to allow modification of current ASL code but it cuts down on the existing software resources that are available. In the extreme case, if there existed a solution in GPL that met all their requirements except ASL 2.0, they could not accept it… That’s just plain silly.

If you really get FLOSS, you have to share and re-use source-code not just the latest build of some project. Still, it’s a start to getting the whole US government doing IT the right way, sharing it instead of paying a bunch of suppliers of similar software repeatedly for the use of it. The VA sees their source code as FLOSS and they don’t seem to care that it remains FLOSS after distribution. That’s short-sighted. Nevertheless this will help VA balance a budget. Obtain the software at the minimum cost, not what the market will bear.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.