Save Award 2010 Ideas

I suggest the government move to open source software whenever an upgrade is scheduled. Employees already have to deal with new menus and features during upgrades, and most mature open source software has a similar look and feel as proprietary offerings. Therefore, the learning curve would not be too steep and there was going to be a learning process anyway when the upgrade happened.

The NASA-wide version of Spacebook is based on a design for a public-facing version currently referred to as "OpenNASA v.2.0". My idea is to release the new Spacebook (built on Liferay opensource portal s/w) source code as open source so that other Agencies (across all sectors of gov't) can begin developing similar intranets and OpenGov 2.0 (public-facing) portals.

This would greatly facilitate social networking between... more »

Use free, open-source software and operating systems on computers where possible. This would save millions of dollars on software license fees each year.

The federal government should use free and open source software (FOSS) such as the Ubuntu operating system and the OpenOffice office suite whenever these products are competitive with similar commercial software. This would result in substantial monetary savings on licensing fees for commercial software with no loss of productivity.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://www.openoffice.org/

At home I use OpenOffice software which comes with a Microsoft Word/PowerPoint/Excel compatible spread sheet program. It works great and it's free for the public to use. Here's the link:

 

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

I wonder if it would be free for EPA to use?

Adopt open standards compliance for all Governement software and require that Open Source software be preferred over commercial software unless a justification for purchasing commercial software can be given. Research the approach currently being considered as a part of the European Interoperability Framework.

How much does the government spend on virus protection software, network licenses and other IT related fees? Upgrade the entire IT infrastructure from Microsoft Windows and reduce millions in software and hardware related cost. No more virus updates, no more license fees for each network user. By choosing an open source or Macintosh solution the government can save millions. One problem, trying to convince those... more »

I suggest we actively - and openly - participate in the development of Open Source software, as well as explore the possibility of implementing such solutions government-wide. Examples of open source software abound: from operating systems (Linux) and databases (mySQL), to statistical analysis (R), and office suites (OpenOffice). Active participation in the development process will also provide value to the government... more »

Use open source products rather than 3rd party. This idea would eliminate tremendous amounts of money that is wasted buying products with no comparative advantage. For example, consider how much is spent on every government employee to provide a slew of Microsoft products that are mostly not used, provide no comparative benefit to citizens, and provide no tangible benefit to users over open source versions?

This idea... more »

Use open source software on government computers rather than proprietary software. This would allow lower licensing and support costs, as well as giving the government the ability to easily tailor software to their specific needs.