powdermonkey

Canada Open Source Report Guidelines

Intreresting report from Canada on Open Source (2004):

Free and Open Source Software
Overview and Preliminary Guidelines for the Government of Canada

Open Source encryption module loses FIPS certification

not right, after all has NIST gone through all the source code in RSA? No, but in a case where the source code has been gone through with a fine toothcomb and checked out, NIST keeps pulling the cert, since Vendors with money to loose keep fighting dirty...

Open Source encryption module loses FIPS certification

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has revoked certification of the open-source encryption tool OpenSSL under the Federal Information Processing Standard.

OpenSSL in January became one of the first open-source software products to be validated under NIST’s Computer Module Validation Program for FIPS-140-2. The certificate apparently was suspended in June when questions were raised about the validated module’s interaction with outside software elements.

The revocation caught the Open Source Software Institute, which shepherded the module through the validation process, by surprise.

“I am discouraged with what appears to be another change after certification has been awarded,” said executive director John Weathersby. “It is disheartening after three-and-a-half years of work to have the certification pulled twice for reasons not clear to us.”

On July 14 the CMVP Web site listed the OpenSSL certificate 642 as “revoked.” On Monday it was listed as “not available.” A statement from CMVP supervisor Randy Easter indicated there is no distinction between the two terms.

@ OSCON

I'll be speaking at OSCON in Portland, OR next week:
Open Technology Development: Open Source and the U.S. Government

The U.S. Government and Department of Defense are examining how to deploy new technology development methodologies to increase the fielding rate of software and related technology-based systems. DoD is specifically focusing on Open Technology Development (OTD), which refers to technology and business process mechanisms to allow Government-funded software code to be shared and collaboratively developed across DOD activities. This methodology allows organizations and contractors to rapidly adapt and extend existing software capabilities in response to shifting threats and requirements without being locked in to a specific vendor or held hostage to proprietary technologies.

UN Open Source website

UNDP-APDIP International Open Source

http://www.iosn.net/

Welcome to the International Open Source Network an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

The International Open Source Network (IOSN) is a Center of Excellence for FOSS in the Asia-Pacific Region. It shapes its activities around Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) technologies and applications. Via a small secretariat based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok and three centres of excellence – IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island Countries), and IOSN South Asia, based in Manila, Suva and Chennai respectively, the IOSN is tasked specifically to facilitate and network FOSS advocates and human resources in the region. The vision is that developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region can achieve rapid and sustained economic and social development by using affordable yet effective FOSS ICT solutions to bridge the digital divide.

AIA Sounds Alarm Over Proposed DOD Contracting Legislation

I think we can all agree there is a problem with the way DoD aquires digital assets, but this probably isn't the best way to go for risky/unkowable research. The key should be to not do far-out research inside operational programs (F-22, etc.). Version, take what is available at the time, integrate, move on to the next cycle. The proposal could work if the contract times we short, max a year, should be able to quanitify the risk for a short perios of time.

 AIA Sounds Alarm Over Proposed DOD Contracting Legislation

Concerned over the possible ramifications of Senate defense authorization language that would require fixed-price contracts for most Defense Department development programs, the Aerospace Industries Association is urging Congress to explore other methods to control costs.

The Senate's fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill (S.2766) would mandate the used of fixed-price contracts for research and development (R&D) unless the secretary of defense determines that the program is too complex and risky.

Fixed-price government contracts place most of the risk in the lap of the contractor, and are more typically used for technically mature products. Such contracts rarely yield good results for industry working on development programs because such programs tend to run up costly changes during testing, AIA President John Douglass told reporters July 6. Cost-reimbursement or award fee contracts, which put more risk on the government side, are more traditional for developmental work.

The Senate most likely passed the authorization language out of a desire to control costs, Douglass said. However, "fixed-price contracting for development items has never proven to be acceptable," he said. "It didn't work for us when we tried it back in the mid 1980s. The Australians have tried it, the Brits have tried it, other countries have tried it, and everybody's given up on it... The costs go up just as much on a fixed-price contract."

Despite its current boom, the defense industry already has the lowest returns of any major manufacturing sector in the U.S., Douglass said. A mandate for fixed-price contracting on most development programs could push the industry's margins even lower. As a result, contractors might begin inflating their bids, wh

On newsforge.com

Article on Newsforge about OTD:  The Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) has announced the release of a Department of Defense (DoD) report entitled the Open Technology Development Roadmap  which focuses on how to make the use of open technology development an integral part of the Department of Defense (DoD) software acquisition and development processes.

Accordingg to OSSI, "OTD methodology will enable DoD organizations and contractors to rapidly adapt and extend existing software capabilities in response to shifting threats and requirements without, being locked in to a specific vendor or held hostage to proprietary technologies."

The 79 page report defines Open Technology Development, explains the key need that it fulfills, and makes concrete recommendations on how to make its use a standard operating procedure within the DoD. According to the report, Open Technology Development "combines salient advances" in four key areas:

• Open Standards and Interfaces
• Open Source Software and Designs
• Collaborative/Distributive culture and online support tools
• Technological Agility

The report distinguishes between open source and OTD, since ODT code may be developed internally at the  DoD and only available for distribution within the department.

NewsForge spoke briefly this afternoon with John Scott, one of the report's three authors. Scott told us the biggest single benefit OTD brings to the DoD is not in cost savings, but in agility: getting IT tools to those who use them more quickly and efficiently.

John Weathersby of OSSI said "OTD is more than the technical benefits of open source. OTD focuses on the changing, evolving business model...how open source is, and will become, an integral part of the DoD business process."

Report also here: http://www.acq.osd.mil/asc/

OSD/AS&C Open Technology Development Report is out!

DUSD(AS&C), is examining how to deploy new technology development methodologies within DOD to increase the fielding rate of software and related technology based systems. AS&C is specifically focusing on Open Technology Development (OTD), which refers to technology and business process mechanisms to allow DOD-funded software code to be shared and collaboratively developed across DOD activities. This methodology would allow DOD organizations and contractors to rapidly adapt and extend existing software capabilities in response to shifting threats and requirements without, being locked in to a proprietary technologies/standard.

Downloadable here:

Open Source Software Institute
or
Open Technology Development Website

GCN: Weapons projects misfire on software

Weapons projects misfire on software

Every year the Government Accountability Office issues a report that gives a brief summary of the status of major weapons acquisition programs. And every year the reports say that many, if not most, of those acquisition programs are experiencing cost overruns and schedule delays in their software development segments.

The problem is huge. In fiscal 2006, the Defense Department will spend as much as $12 billion on reworking software—30 percent of its estimated budget of $40 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation. By comparison, Motorola—and other large commercial companies—spends just a small percent of its budget on rework.

Nor can the significance of the problem be overlooked. In its summary for 2006, Assessments of Selected Major Weapon Programs (GCN.com, Quickfind 605), GAO pointed out that, in the past five years, “DOD has doubled its planned investments in new weapons systems from $700 [billion] to $1.4 trillion. This huge increase has not been accompanied by more stability, better outcomes or more buying power for the acquisition dollar.”

The huge difference between military and private-sector efforts, according to Carol Mebane and Cheryl Andrew of GAO’s weapons acquisition audits practice, exists because corporations use a structured, replicable approach to software development that emphasizes requirements planning upfront.

World eBook Fair

too many books, too little time:
World eBook Fair:

Please visit us here from July 4th-August 4, 2006 to download your selections from 1/3 million free eBooks.

Welcome to the home of the World eBook Fair, the largest showcase for eBooks, eBook publishers, editors, and others working in the new world of eBooks.

July 4th to August

4, 2006 marks a month long celebration of the 35th anniversary of the first step taken towards today's eBooks, when the United States Declaration of Independence was the first file placed online for downloading in what was destined to be an electronic library of the Internet.  Today's eBook library has a total of over 100 languages represented.

DC government makes datafeeds available

interestign article about the Washington DC government making data available by RSS:

“Our expectation is that it will spawn mashups, analysis, and who knows what ripple effects,” Thomas wrote. “We also expect it will motivate government agencies to seek and sustain high levels of performance."

On June 12 the first of the feeds — data on the disposition of service requests received by the Mayor’s Call Center and the online Service Request Center — was quietly launched at the Center for Innovation and Reform.

Open government meets IT