Communities drive open source software

US government agencies are drowning in software. Much of it is old or redundant or unresponsive to its users’ needs. An agency will procure a particular information system only to discover that another agency has already built the same system.

Worse, the program is so large and the contracting process so long that the private sector has long since innovated away from the original requirements, saddling the agency’s program with either antiquated software or an endlessly amended project plan. Agencies cannot buy their way out of this problem.