The day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his final state of the state address, the California Office of the Chief Information Officer codified another small part of the Administration's legacy -- an official position on the use of open source software.
The news came in the the OCIO's first Information Technology Policy Letter of the year (ITPL 10-01) that formally declared the use of open source software as an acceptable practice by state agencies.
The policy statement requires agencies that use open source to do so within the context of their software management plan -- a required part of agency plans whether or not they use open source. The California policy adopts the distribution criteria of the Open Source Initiative to bring discipline to this officially sanctioned practice -- including free redistribution without prejudice; easily accessible source code, flexibility to make modifications under the same licensing conditions as the original PROVIDED changes do not interfere with the original author's work or contaminate other software; and an over arching technology neutrality.
The letter is not the final word on open source in state government. It promises further direction on licensing, procurement and copyright at a later date.