There has been allot of talk about government transparency, which is good, more data to citizens is better than less, etc.
What about technology transparency?
As a taxpayer I would like to be able to use some of the code my government pays for the creation of (unless classified). As a contractor to the military I would like to be able to examine source code for the multiple technologies that are being integrated together to provide the best capability possible for soldiers, sailors, marines and airman in the field and ensure it works, especially if that source code was paid for with taxpayer funding.
The DC CTO and the Sunlight Foundation have recently held contests about creating mashup applications for various data sets, the thing has has made these contests possible is that existing source code was available to change, modify and add to. Otherwise everyone would be creating applications from scratch greatly slowing the speed of innovation. Another great example is Mashable, which has snippets of source code available for use and reuse.
Technology transparency also enables individuals and organizations to learn how the source code functions and maybe ensure that nothing nefarious is going on behind the scenes.
So I hope in the whole transparency discussion going on Transparency of Technology is included in the discussion is included.
Recent Comments