State of Open Source in the Federal Government
Discusses the adoption, governance, and policy landscape of open-source software within US federal agencies and defense departments.
Summary
In this presentation on the DEF CON 33 Creator Stage, an advocate for public technology delivers an assessment of the current state of open-source software (OSS) across United States federal agencies. Opening at 00:00, the speaker discusses how adopting and contributing to open source enhances federal technological agility, transparency, and cybersecurity posture.
At 07:00, the talk evaluates the economic and security benefits of open source in government, explaining how public code sharing reduces taxpayer waste, accelerates feature deployment, and enables crowd-sourced vulnerability identification. At 14:00, the speaker examines federal policy frameworks, notably OMB Memorandum M-16-21 and its pilot requirement for federal agencies to release a minimum of 20% of custom-developed software as open source.
Highlighting successful implementations at 21:00, the presenter spotlights the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) developed by the General Services Administration (GSA). Concluding at 28:00, the speaker outlines actionable goals for expanding federal OSS publication, establishing agency open source program offices (OSPOs), and welcoming external community contributions to public repositories. (AI summary — Gemini Flash)
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