California State CIO Opens Procurement Door to Open Source Software

16 January 2010 Geoff Zeiss

Following the US Department of Defense and the UK Government, the California State Office of the CIO (OCIO) has evened the procurement playing field for open source software within the state government. 

The OCIO issued an IT Policy Letter Open Source Software Policy that

  • “Formally establish the use of Open Source Software (OSS) in California state government as an acceptable practice
  • “Add the OSS definition to the State Administrative Manual (SAM)
  • “Announce changes to the Software Management Plan Guidelines” [to include open source software]

Agencies and
departments must include open source software in their software management plans if appropriate. The policy requires departments to use open source software with the same standards they apply to proprietary software.

There is speculation that the policy may be intended to increase competition in IT procurement and save the state money. 

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

View article by Geoff Zeiss

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