Khmer Software Initiative

In October 2000, The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) report “Developing Open Source Software to Advance High End Computing” recommends that “a ‘level playing field’ must be created within the government procurement process to facilitate Open Source development.”

In April 2003, the report Developing an Open Source Option for NASA Software, stated that “For NASA, the adoption of an Open Source option for software distribution would lead to three main benefits: 1) improved software development; 2) enhanced collaboration, in particular across organizational boundaries; and 3) more efficient and effective dissemination.”

State Of Oregon In March 2003, House Bill 2892 was introduced which would require State agencies to “consider the use of Open Source software” for all new software acquisitions.

State of Texas Senate Bill 1579 proposes that, “for all new software acquisitions, a state agency shall: 1. consider acquiring open source software products in addition to proprietary software products; 2. except as provided by Subdivisions (4) and (5), acquire software products primarily on a value-for-money basis; 3. provide justification whenever a proprietary software product is acquired instead of open source software; 4. avoid the acquisition of products that do not comply with open standards for interoperability or data storage; 5. avoid the acquisition of products that are known to make unauthorized transfers of information to, or permit unauthorized control of or modification to the state government’s computer systems by, parties outside the control of the state government.”

State of Oklahoma Oklahoma bill, HB 1627 introduced in January 2003 states that “No state agency nor the Purchasing Division of the Department of Central Services shall enter into a contract for the acquisition of computer software developed exclusively for the agency or the state, unless the vendor agrees to provide to the agency or the state the source code for the software.” It was also noted that “For purposes of this section, ‘source code’ means the programming instruction for a computer program in its original form, created by a programmer with a text editor or a visual programming tool and saved in a file. ”