recently a colleague sent an email out to an agency discussion group about open source, asking about rationales for open source release. his management didnt see the justification for his request to release his software under the NOSA. it’s interesting that although, as someone in the resulting discussion pointed out, NASA’s own charter states that it shall “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof”, open source software release is, in many instances, still seen as more of special case, than as a natural way to minimize overhead while maximizing the aforementioned dissemination (among other things).

last year i did a series of interviews with a cross section of developers, engineers, managers, and lawyers at Ames about open source. from there, i compiled the rationales they offered as the motivation for their interest in open source. i think it’s worth noting that none of these are unique to NASA per se, but i do consider all of them strong reasons in their own right for open source release and/or development, and certainly together they present a strong argument for encouraging open source release as long as there is no explicit reason not to.

1. Improve the effectiveness of collaborations with other NASA Centers, space agencies, universities, and contractors
2. Cost Reduction: Leverage the free and open source development process for projects that normally cost millions of dollars in development and testing
3. Improve quality and functionality of existing products
4. Provide opportunities for broader involvement in the space program
5. Distribute NASA’s public software to as wide an audience as possible.
6. Encourage adoption of common practices and open standards
7. Provide an opportunity for others to add value beyond what was planned or unexpected.

the order above is roughly commensurate with the relative relevance most people cited.

i would like to see a world in which the default release for government information of any kind, not just software, is open. while i realize that may not be immediately feasible or practical, there are concrete steps we can take to at least move incrementally in that direction. while general education and awareness are foundational to any strategy, streamlining the release process itself is something that would significantly ease the overhead of learning about and going through the open source release process. more thoughts on that another time.