NASA Explores Open Source at Summit

CIO Insight - As the U.S. government explores revamping its IT infrastructure, open source and the help of the volunteer community could be its saving grace.

NASA has a simple, one-word answer for those who have ever asked any of the following questions:  Does the U.S. government use open-source software in research, testing and production? Does it develop its own software and work within a community in an open-source manner? And does it distribute open-source software back to the community, once it's been vetted and sanctioned as ready for prime time by federal IT chiefs?

The answer to each of the above, of course, is yes. But legal caveats, fine print and the amorphous character of software itself make it much more complicated than all that.