Open source wants to be a lobbying force in Washington.
But rather than focusing on procurement or the construction of open source communities within the bureaucracy, open source’s lobbyists have decided to focus on a more political issue.
The idea is for the group, Open Source for America, to study such marks of openness as how Freedom of Information Act requests are processed, public access to agency documents, use of online public participation tools, and technology procurement procedures.
It’s all very idealistic, very Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (right — from Amazon.com).
Movie buffs will recall that the Capra classic is the story of an idealist (it made Jimmy Stewart (above) a star) who finds himself fighting the very people who made him a Senator. He wins only because he touches the right man’s conscience.
On this issue, open source seems to have an ally in the Obama Administration. They’ve made approving noises about openness, and even about open source — note the use of Drupal here.
But if you get too close, if you demand the right answers from the wrong people, you can still get shoved into a hole in Mr. Obama’s Washington.
Life is not the movies. There are limits to all ideals. Ideals taken to extremes become ideology, an open invitation to upside-downism. Even the lobbying group’s name, Open Source for America, can make a nostalgic liberal scream.
Point is there was another option on the table. Open source could have focused on issues vital to the industry, on procurement policies and the creation of open source communities within government.
Would that have been better?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a journalist, writer and part-time futurist for over 30 years.
