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with open source libraries/ reference implementations Citation needed? FAFAIK the reference implementation is closed source, and there are no libraries -- only a powershell module that is actually a wrapper around the Word/Excel OLE objects.
There is Apache POI for the JVM. https://poi.apache.org/overview.html
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All software used by governments should be whatever is best in terms of features/price/security/etc. Open Source is nice but not really important. All data, however, should be in documented, standardized, open formats. Where it makes sense, software should have APIs using common standards. Where it's possible without revealing national secrets or personal information, those APIs should be open to the public,
Public auditing of voting terminals strikes me as a place where open source of government-used software matters.
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None of those problems are anywhere close to being insurmountable. You just need competent people in the government What's the word that means the opposite of tautology again?
What's the word that means "uninformed person spewing tired cliches" again? The EU bureaucracy is actually pretty good regarding open standards. They publish most documents in html/doc and pdf, see for example http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=CELEX:520... They have also adopted the Akoma Ntoso standard internally, meaning all legislation is crafted in standardized semantic xml (as well transcripts,…
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None of those problems are anywhere close to being insurmountable. You just need competent people in the government What's the word that means the opposite of tautology again?
What's the word that means "uninformed person spewing tired cliches" again? The EU bureaucracy is actually pretty good regarding open standards. They publish most documents in html/doc and pdf, see for example http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=CELEX:520... They have also adopted the Akoma Ntoso standard internally, meaning all legislation is crafted in standardized semantic xml (as well transcripts,…
All software used by and written for the government should be open source, just like all research paid for with government funds should be open access.
All software used by governments should be whatever is best in terms of features/price/security/etc. Open Source is nice but not really important. All data, however, should be in documented, standardized, open formats. Where it makes sense, software should have APIs using common standards. Where it's possible without revealing national secrets or personal information, those APIs should be open to the public,
1) what problem it is trying to solve
2) how it was developed (a git log would probably do)
3) how testing is ensured (code quality)
4) security (if my personal data is hosted by teh govt, I would feel a lot safer to know how it was secured - and BS like "it's encrypted with 256 bit encryption" does not help as does not tell us how it's implemented and policies around it's implementation). And results of the pen tests (along with what was done to improve it must be published)
5) after certain years, it would have to be open sourced (if stuff like National security is an issue, it could be pushed ahead but at one point, it would be considered legacy and retired - which is abandonware - which has to be published)
6) how much was spent on the product (not just govt employee salaries, but how much it cost to host it, test it, etc.)
7) all of the above should be easily accessible.
8) if open sourced, policies on how the public can help/contribute.
It will help guide a lot of policies, bring more accountability and also help push software development.
A lot of the interest in mandating open standards, at least a few years ago, was targeted at the dominance of MS Office. That's interesting nowadays because: - MS Office's default file formats are open standards with open source libraries/ reference implementations - MS Office (both desktop and web app) can handle ODF very well nowadays. At least for small business and home users, Google docs has become increasingly…
A lot of the interest in mandating open standards, at least a few years ago, was targeted at the dominance of MS Office. That's interesting nowadays because: - MS Office's default file formats are open standards with open source libraries/ reference implementations - MS Office (both desktop and web app) can handle ODF very well nowadays. At least for small business and home users, Google docs has become increasingly…
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Public auditing of voting terminals strikes me as a place where open source of government-used software matters.
And the problem always is: how are you going to verify that the terminal you're using is running precisely the version of software you've seen? There's an awesome online course touching all those topics and then some, from J. Alex Halderman, Associate Professor in University of Michigan. It's called 'Securing Digital Democracy' and is available on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Public auditing of voting terminals strikes me as a place where open source of government-used software matters.
And the problem always is: how are you going to verify that the terminal you're using is running precisely the version of software you've seen? There's an awesome online course touching all those topics and then some, from J. Alex Halderman, Associate Professor in University of Michigan. It's called 'Securing Digital Democracy' and is available on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy