Open Source Software in State Government Operations

Status Report
Open Source Software in State
Government Operations

January 2005

State of Hawaii
Department of Accounting and General Services
Information and Communications Services Division

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INTRODUCTION
This report on the status of Open Source software use in State Government operations
was prepared to meet the requirements of House Concurrent Resolution 83 Senate Draft
1 (HCR83 SD1).

HCR83 SD1 (Appendix I) requests DAGS (Department of Accounting and General

Services) to provide a status report on the current use of open source software
applications within state government and to adopt a state policy on the use of open
source software applications within government agencies.

Software applications for computers are usually associated with commercial companies
that design, build, and sell a license to permit the use the software under various kinds of
restrictions such as the number of computers or processors that the software can be used
with. The person using the application (the end-user) sees the presentation layer of the
application but does not have access to the underlying computational instructions.

Open Source software, on the other hand, attempts to create complete transparency
between the creators of the computer software application and the people use the
software application. This is done by making the actual human-readable computer
instructions (software source code) available to everyone.

The Open Source model for software development and distribution has, especially in the
past few years, changed the way many technology companies operate. Apple, HP, IBM,
Novell, and many other well established technology firms now offer Open Source
software in ways that integrates with their existing proprietary software catalog. Even
Microsoft, a company considered at odds with the Open Source movement, has released
three projects using the Common Public License (CPL) developed by IBM and approved
by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Many firms involved with Open Source now derive
their revenue from maintenance, consulting, custom software design, and training instead
of the applications sales (since Open Source software can be freely obtained).

DEFINING KEY TERMS

There is, sometimes, a misunderstanding or confusion of the different terms used to
distinguish Open Source software from others kinds of technology categories. It is
common, for example, to hear or read statements confusing Open Source with Public
Domain, Freeware, Shareware, and Open Standard. Similarly, there is often a mistaken
assumption that Open Source software cannot be a Commercial product. This section
starts with a basic description of Open Source. It then describes other computer software
terms listed alphabetically.

Open Source
The most basic description of Open Source software is human readable computer
instruction code that can be freely distributed by one person or institution to another
person of institution. This, however, would be an incomplete description of Open Source

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software. The full industry-wide accepted Open Source definition from the Open Source
Initiative (OSI) is found in Appendix II. Unlike computer software placed in the public
domain, Open Source software have licenses defining how the software can be used and
distributed. At the time of this writing (September 2004), there are 54 Open Source
licenses certified by the OSI. Although these licenses do have variation between them in
specific areas, all of the licenses adhere to the 10 criteria described by the OSI Open
Source Definition. A summary of these criteria specified by the OSI are provided below
using excerpts from or paraphrasing of the OSI definitions:

1. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
2. The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source
code as well as compiled form.
3. The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to
be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
4. The license protects the integrity of the author’s source code while still allowing
modification of the source code under specified conditions.
5. The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
6. The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific
field of endeavor.
7. The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is
redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those
parties.
8. The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of
a particular software distribution.
9. The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along
with the licensed software.
10. No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or
style of interface.

It is important to note that the Open Source Linux operating system is not a requirement
for working with other Open Source applications. There are many Open Source
applications that work with other operating system platforms such as Microsoft Windows
XP or Apple OS/X.

Commercial
Some people incorrectly believe that Open Source software cannot also be Commercial
software. There are many examples of Open Source products that are also commercial
products in the sense that a fee is paid to obtain both the product and the services related
to the product. These services include centrally managed security updates and fixes and
technical support for configuration and operations. The main difference is that source
code (computer instruction set) is available for Open Source commercial products while
it is not for proprietary commercial products.

Freeware
Freeware is proprietary software that can be used without any time limit restrictions.
However, some freeware software applications are only free under specific conditions.

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The most common restriction found is allowing the free use of the software for personal
use but not for corporate or institutional use.

Public Domain
Software is said to be placed in the public domain when all ownership rights to the
software have been relinquished or lost. The main difference between public domain
software and Open Source software is that Open Source software has a license associated
with it that defines the nature of its use and distribution. Software placed in the public
domain does not have any license, copyright, or patent associated with it.

Open Standard
The terms Open Source and Open Standard are sometimes incorrectly used
interchangeably when, in fact, the terms do not have the same meaning.

Specifications for hardware and/or software that are publicly available. Open standards
imply that multiple vendors can compete directly based on the features and performance
of their products. It also implies that the existing open system can be removed and
replaced with that of another vendor with minimal effort and without major interruption.
From TechWeb TechEncyclopedia
http://techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=open+standards

One example of an Open Standard is the Structured Query Language (SQL) used by
many database applications. This includes both proprietary database products (such as
IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle Database) as well as Open Source database
products such as Firebird, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.

Proprietary
Proprietary software for computers is, generally, developed by and owned by one
organization or individual. Most proprietary software applications are licensed for use by
paying a fee. However, there are also free proprietary software applications (sometimes
but not always falling under the category of Freeware). The most important difference
between proprietary software and Open Source software is that the human readable
instructions (software source code) for the proprietary software is not available to anyone
except the organization or individual who owns the software or a third party who signs a
legally binding document that allows access to the source code but does not allow for any
disclosure of information about the source code to others.

Shareware
Shareware is proprietary software that can be used without charge for a limited trial basis
(typically 15 to 30 days). If you want to use the shareware software application beyond
the trial period, a payment is expected by the vendor. The human readable software
instruction code for share is not available as with other proprietary products.

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Internet
Although there are very specific and technical definitions of what the Internet is, the
important point for the State of Hawaii is that computer systems on the Internet are
visible to the general public.

Intranet
An Intranet is a private closed network. Most of the computing resources and the
computer work that goes on within the State of Hawaii are not visible to the general
public. Thus, much of the development work using Open Source is going on within this
private network space and not visible to the general public.

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE USED BY STATE OF HAWAII

DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
DAGS/ICSD has been researching and doing exploratory work with Open Source
products since 2001. Several application systems, characterized as important but not
mission critical, have been developed with Open Source products. These systems have
been implemented in production mode, and are used daily on both the State’s internal
network and the public Internet. DAGS/ICSD developed strict criteria that it uses to
screen the multitude of Open Source products to qualify and select those that are included
in its “Open Source Toolkit.” DAGS/ICSD shares the knowledge it gains with other
departments and government jurisdictions, and will continue with this research and
exploratory work in the future.

The criteria developed and used by DAGS/ICSD to qualify and select Open Source
software development tools are as follows:

• The software must be a widely used best-of-breed product.

• The development support community surrounding the software must have
demonstrable activities as measured by reviews, instructional material, news
group discussions, published books, and other community efforts.
• The software maintainers must have past behavior that demonstrates a timely
responsiveness to security issues.
• The software must be able to be supported by current staff and fit into existing
computer and network architectural infrastructure.
• The software must be cost-effective from both initial purchase and going-forward
operational perspectives.

Server and Workstation Software Product Categories

There are numerous Open Source software used by various State of Hawaii Departments
and Agencies. It is important to distinguish between two important types of products that
apply to both Open Source and proprietary products.

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Most people are familiar with what is referred to here as workstation software. This is
the category of software most commonly found on desktop and notebook personal
computers (PCs). This category of software includes word processors, spreadsheets,
presentation software, email clients, and many other personal productivity and creativity
applications that are installed on a PC that can be used by the one person using the
computer at a specific time.

The server software category includes the kind of computer software that is not generally
recognized by product name by most non-technical people but plays a major role in the
function of well known large scale web sites such as Google and Yahoo. Server software
are installed on fewer computers than workstation software. However, server software
can reach and serve anyone connected to a computer data network such as the Internet or
a company Intranet.

Apache HTTP Web Server

http://httpd.apache.org/

The Apache HTTP Web Server is a widely used application that provides web pages for
the majority of web servers running worldwide. It is platform-neutral and can be run on
top of Linux, Microsoft Windows, and other computer operating systems.

Apache Jakarta Tomcat

http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/

Tomcat is described as a servlet container that is used in the official Reference

Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies. It is useful to
note here that while the Java programming language is not an Open Source product (it is
owned by SUN Microsystems), the Apache Jakarta Tomcat project and many other Java-
based projects are available as Open Source products.

Linux
http://www.linux.org/

Linux is, perhaps, the best known Open Source project. It is an operating system that
provides the basis for interaction between a human and the underlying computer
hardware.

Mozilla and Firefox

http://www.mozilla.org/

The Mozilla project includes several products targeting web users of all kinds. The best
known products are the Mozilla browser and the Firefox browser. The Firefox browser
received a great deal of attention in Fall 2004 as the press focused on security problems
related to the widely used Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Firefox, like many other
Open Source products, is platform neutral and can be run on computers using a variety of
operating systems including Linux and Microsoft Windows.

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MySQL
http://www.mysql.com/

MySQL is a database server noted for its ability to be used with modest computer
hardware configurations and deliver exceptional performance. While it lacks some
features of some more complex database servers such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle,
and PostgreSQL, it has found a good fit in web-based applications that require fast simple
database operations.

PHP
http://www.php.net/

PHP is a scripting language for developing web-based applications. It is said to be the

most widely using web programming language in the world. It is simple to learn and use
and has been used extensively in recent years to deliver projects that may have been cost
prohibitive using proprietary technology.

PostgreSQL
http://www.postgresql.org/

PostgreSQL, like MySQL, is a database server application. It has many of the more
sophisticated database features missing from MySQL and rivals the features provided by
many high-end proprietary database server products.

Python
http://www.python.org/

Python is a general purpose programming language that is easy to learn and promotes
good programming practices. It is often used to write crucial system level software that is
generally unseen by everyone except system administrators. Many of the Red Hat Linux
system administration tools, for example, are written using this programming language.

Zope/Plone
http://www.zope.org/
http://www.plone.org/

Zope is described as an open source application server for building content management
systems, intranets, portals, and custom applications. Plone is an add-on product for Zope
that is described as an intranet and extranet server, as a document publishing system, a
portal server and as a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located
entities. The key feature of Zope and Plone is the ability it gives system managers and
content creators to modify a web site without any special tools. All development and
management can be performed using any contemporary graphical web browser. This
reduces development overhead as well as encouraging the separation of content creation
from system management functions. It has been used extensively in the creation of
Intranet and Internet web sites for the State of Hawaii.

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STATE OF HAWAII PROJECTS USING OPEN SOURCE

PRODUCTS
Many of the projects using Open Source products are web-based ones running on the
State of Hawaii Intranet (internal) or Internet (public). The list below provides an
overview of the kinds of projects that have been deployed by the State of Hawaii using
Open Source development tools and products.

• Internet web sites and applications

• Intranet web sites and applications
• Data capture software for budget planning
• Status and expenditure tracking
• Electronic tax form filing
• Records reporting system

SUMMARY
The State of Hawaii Executive Branch departments have been evaluating and using Open
Source solutions on a case by case basis for at least three years now. Open Source
software is currently used by numerous State of Hawaii Executive Branch departments
and agencies for a wide variety of project types. The majority of these projects are server
oriented (one large computer serving many people) rather than workstation oriented (one
computer providing service to one person at a time).

RECOMMENDATION
DAGS recommends a policy that allows Open Source products to be considered along
with proprietary software products in the business case analysis for any project. For each
project the software products to be used must be selected on their merits. In some cases
Open Source products will offer a better solution, and in other cases proprietary products
will. DAGS cautions against legislation or policy that mandates the use of Open Source
products, and offers to coordinate the development of a policy and standards for the
effective use of Open Source products.

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Appendix I: H.C.R. No. 83 S.D. 1

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessioncurrent/bills/hcr83_sd1_.htm

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 83

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE,
2004
H.C.R. NO. S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION
REQUESTING a status report on THE current USE of
oPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE in state GOVERNMENT and the
adoption of a state policy supporting use of oPEN
SOURCE SOFTWARE in state GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS.

WHEREAS, state government agencies are among the largest

consumers of commercial computer software within the State;
and

WHEREAS, some of the applications of commercial computer

software may not necessarily be compatible with government
functions, operations, and needs, and the software may also
contain programming glitches; and

WHEREAS, traditional commercial computer software is based

on a closed model in which only a very few programmers can
see the software source code and modify and improve the
software; and

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WHEREAS, for this reason commercial software glitches and

incompatibilities cannot be fixed by government agencies,
which must hire consultants to address these software
problems; and

WHEREAS, unlike traditional commercial software, open

source software source code is accessible to and may be
read and modified by most programmers to improve, adapt it,
and fix bugs; and

WHEREAS, open source software provides the opportunity for

state agencies to procure at little or no cost, software
programs or utilities that may be modified by the agency to
more closely meet the agency's needs; and

WHEREAS, open source software, upon modification, may be

redistributed for use by other agencies that may yet again
modify the software, therefore resulting in further
improvements to the software; and

WHEREAS, with the growth of the Internet, there has been a

rapid expansion in the sharing of information technology to
the point where the philosophy of open source software is
being promoted by the nonprofit, Open Source Initiative;
and

WHEREAS, the Open Source Initiative has been embraced by

those in the industry who want to provide a means for rapid
development of better software and community access to
these constantly evolving, mainstream software products;
and

WHEREAS, the Open Source Initiative has developed and

adopted criteria to certify open source software products,
protect the credibility of the open source philosophy, as
well as ensure that no harm is brought to end users of open
source software products; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the

Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular
Session of 2004, the Senate concurring, that the Department
of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) is requested to
provide a status report on the current use of open source
software applications within state government and to adopt
a state policy on the use of open source software
applications within government agencies; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that DAGS submit a report of its

findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later
than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular
Session of 2005; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this

Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Comptroller,
directors of each state department, Superintendent of
Education, State Librarian, and the President of the
University of Hawaii.

Report Title:

Open source software in state government operations

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Appendix II: The Open Source Definition

http://opensource.org/docs/definition.php

The Open Source Definition

Version 1.9

The indented, italicized sections below appear as annotations to the Open Source Definition (OSD)
and are not a part of the OSD. A plain version of the OSD without annotations can be found here.

A printable version of this annotated page is available here.

Introduction

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of
open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a
component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several
different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

Rationale: By constraining the license to require free redistribution, we eliminate the temptation to
throw away many long-term gains in order to make a few short-term sales dollars. If we didn't do this,
there would be lots of pressure for cooperators to defect.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as
well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source
code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more
than a reasonable reproduction cost–preferably, downloading via the Internet without
charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would
modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate
forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

Rationale: We require access to un-obfuscated source code because you can't evolve programs
without modifying them. Since our purpose is to make evolution easy, we require that modification be
made easy.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be
distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software

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distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

Rationale: The mere ability to read source isn't enough to support independent peer review and rapid
evolutionary selection. For rapid evolution to happen, people need to be able to experiment with and
redistribute modifications.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if
the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the
purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit
distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require
derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

Rationale: Encouraging lots of improvement is a good thing, but users have a right to know who is
responsible for the software they are using. Authors and maintainers have reciprocal right to know
what they're being asked to support and protect their reputations.

Accordingly, an open-source license must guarantee that source be readily available, but may require
that it be distributed as pristine base sources plus patches. In this way, "unofficial" changes can be
made available but readily distinguished from the base source.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

Rationale: In order to get the maximum benefit from the process, the maximum diversity of persons
and groups should be equally eligible to contribute to open sources. Therefore we forbid any open-
source license from locking anybody out of the process.

Some countries, including the United States, have export restrictions for certain types of software. An
OSD-conformant license may warn licensees of applicable restrictions and remind them that they are
obliged to obey the law; however, it may not incorporate such restrictions itself.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific
field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a
business, or from being used for genetic research.

Rationale: The major intention of this clause is to prohibit license traps that prevent open source from
being used commercially. We want commercial users to join our community, not feel excluded from it.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is
redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties

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redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

Rationale: This clause is intended to forbid closing up software by indirect means such as requiring a
non-disclosure agreement.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a
particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and
used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the
program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in
conjunction with the original software distribution.

Rationale: This clause forecloses yet another class of license traps.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with
the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs
distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

Rationale: Distributors of open-source software have the right to make their own choices about their
own software.

Yes, the GPL is conformant with this requirement. Software linked with GPLed libraries only inherits
the GPL if it forms a single work, not any software with which they are merely distributed.

*10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style

of interface.

Rationale: This provision is aimed specifically at licenses which require an explicit gesture of assent
in order to establish a contract between licensor and licensee. Provisions mandating so-called "click-
wrap" may conflict with important methods of software distribution such as FTP download, CD-ROM
anthologies, and web mirroring; such provisions may also hinder code re-use. Conformant licenses
must allow for the possibility that (a) redistribution of the software will take place over non-Web
channels that do not support click-wrapping of the download, and that (b) the covered code (or re-
used portions of covered code) may run in a non-GUI environment that cannot support popup
dialogues.

Origins: Bruce Perens wrote the first draft of this document as "The Debian Free
Software Guidelines", and refined it using the comments of the Debian developers in a
month-long e-mail conference in June, 1997. He removed the Debian-specific
references from the document to create the "Open Source Definition."

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Copyright © 2004 by the Open Source Initiative

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