[vox] [FWD: State of CA endorses Open Source Software]

Brian Lavender brian at brie.com
Fri Jan 29 09:08:23 PST 2010 

I thought Vox would also be interested in this.

http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/pdf/IT_Policy_Letter_10-01_Open_Source_Software.pdf

brian

----- Forwarded message from Brian Lavender <brian at brie.com> -----

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:32:51 -0800
From: Brian Lavender <brian at brie.com>
Subject: Re: [Lug-nuts] State of CA endorses Open Source Software
To: General SacLUG discussing <lug-nuts at saclug.org>
Reply-To: General SacLUG discussing <lug-nuts at saclug.org>

Hmm, how about if I attach the text? I don't know if a PDF will go
through on the mailing list. 


OFFICE OF THE STATE CIO

NUMBER:

IT POLICY LETTER
SUBJECT:

ITPL 10-01
DATE ISSUED:

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE POLICY

January 7, 2010
EXPIRES:

Until Rescinded
REFERENCES: ISSUING AGENCY: OFFICE OF THE STATE CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Government Code Section 11545 State Administrative Manual Sections
4819.2. 4846, 4846.1, 5310, and 5345.1 Statewide Information Management
Manual Section 120

DISTRIBUTION

Agency 1 Secretaries Department Directors Agency Chief Information
Officers Department Chief Information Officers The purpose of this
Information Technology Policy Letter (ITPL) is to: â

€¢ 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)
Section 4819.2;

• Remind organizations of the existing SAM Sections pertaining to
software management and security; and

• Announce changes to the Software Management Plan Guidelines [Section
120 of the Statewide Information Management Manual (SIMM)].

Within the authority of Government Code Section 11545, the Office
of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has responsibility and authority
for the establishment and enforcement of state Information Technology
(IT) in California State Government. This includes establishing and
enforcing state IT strategic plans, policies, standards and enterprise
architecture. This policy provides guidance on the use of Open Source
Software (OSS) and will be augmented in the future to address topics
of licensing,

PURPOSE

BACKGROUND

1

When capitalized, the term “Agency” refers to one of the state’s
super Agencies such as the State and Consumer Services Agency or the
Health and Human Services Agency. When used in lower case, the term
“agency” refers to any office department, board, bureau, commission
or other organizational entity within state government. Within this ITPL,
“agency” and “department” are used interchangeably.

Page 1

procurement, and copyright. 

POLICY The OCIO permits the use of OSS. Consistent with other software,
use of OSS is subject to the software management licensing and security
practices included in the SAM, Sections 4846, 4846.1, 5310–Item 2 and
Item 5 Subsection (f), and 5345.1.

Agencies and departments are required to develop and maintain a
Software Management Plan as described in the SAM Section 4846.1, and
are reminded to include OSS in their plans as appropriate. Guidelines
to assist organizations with the development of a Software Management
Plan are available in Section 120 of the SIMM. These guidelines have
been updated to include the use of OSS and to reflect changes in the
state IT organizational structure.

Use of the SIMM Section 120 Guidelines is not mandatory;
however, agencies are encouraged to utilize the Guidelines
for assistance or guidance. SIMM Section 120 is located at
http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/SIMM.html. Changes to SIMM
Section 120 are identified on Attachment A.

DEFINITION 

The definition of OSS has been added to Section 4819.2 of the SAM. OSS
is defined as 2 Software that includes distribution terms that comply
with the following criteria provided by the Open Source Initiative:

1. Free Redistribution: The software can be given as part of a package
with other applications;

2. Source Code: The code must either be distributed with the software
or easily accessible;

3. Derived Works: The code can be altered and distributed by the new
author under the same license conditions as the product on which it
is based;

4. Integrity of the author's source code: Derived works must not interfere
with the original author's intent or work;

5. No discrimination against persons or groups; 

6. No discrimination against fields of endeavor: Distributed software
cannot be restricted in who can use it based on their intent;

7. Distribution of license: The rights of the program must apply to all to
whom the program is re-distributed without need for an additional license;

8. License must not be specific to a product; Meaning that an operating
system product cannot be restricted to be free only if used with another
specific product;

9. License must not contaminate other software; and 

10. License must be technology-neutral.

2

The open source definition used here is from the Open Source Initiative
and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

Page 2

CONTACT

Questions regarding this policy should be directed to Lee Mosbrucker,
Acting Enterprise Architect at (916) 403-9624, or by e-mail at
Lee.Mosbrucker at state.ca.gov. /s/ ___________________________________
Teri Takai, Chief Information Officer State of California

SIGNATURE

Page 3



On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 03:13:28PM -0800, Christopher Schlacta wrote:
> that page 403'd for me, cna you attach a copy of it for us ?
> On Jan 28, 2010, at 14:14 , Brian Lavender wrote:
> 
> > California has an expliciti policy on using Open Source Software. How
> > about that?
> > 
> > Apparently, this is old news.
> > http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/pdf/IT_Policy_Letter_10-01_Open_Source_Software.pdf
> > 
> > brian
> > -- 
> > Brian Lavender
> > http://www.brie.com/brian/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lug-nuts mailing list
> > Lug-nuts at saclug.org
> > http://www.leibmanland.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lug-nuts
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Lug-nuts mailing list
> Lug-nuts at saclug.org
> http://www.leibmanland.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lug-nuts



----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Brian Lavender
http://www.brie.com/brian/

"About 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't
pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going
to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and
then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

-- Bill Gates (Microsoft) 1998

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