White House Embraces Open Source, Utilizes Drupal

From DailyTech: The Obama administration has been more willing than previous administrations to implement open source technology, as the new WhiteHouse.gov content management software (CMS) system has been switched over to the open source Drupal.

Open source is already used by the U.S. government throughout numerous websites and departments, according to tech guru Tim O-Reilly, but the White House using Drupal will only help further its adoption. Furthermore, the U.S. chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra has been mingling with open source executives -- and future government open source adoption is expected.

After taking office, President Obama issued a request for proposal (RFP) so the WhiteHouse website could be updated depending on the technology available. Drupal, which operates under the GNU General Public License, can be used, modified, and redistributed by any engineer or user.

Although Drupal is available for free, the White House will call on IT engineers to maintain the site, as someone still must configure and maintain the website. Since there are more than 500,000 websites utilizing Drupal -- including Nike, Yahoo and Warner Bros. -- it has proven to be a reliable program, which may help convince other companies and government administrators to give it a try.

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