Whitehouse.gov implementing Drupal has open source advocates rejoicing, but it is worth remembering that using open source is not the same as being open source.
While all the enthusiasm surrounding the relaunch of Whitehouse.gov on the Drupal platform is great, it is aprobably a good thing that entities such as the Supreme Court, Congress, and the Senate are NOT wiki pages or user-created revisions. There is a reason we elect qualified, knowledgeable representatives to advocate our interests. The new Whitehouse.gov, however, is a testimony to the current administration’s commitment to open source. Now if they started switching to open source servers and desktops everywhere, installed open source office applications, and stored data in open source database management systems, they would save taxpayers even huger amounts of money. Whitehouse.gov is an excellent step in the right direction. A government cannot afford to lock itself into proprietary solutions and accompanying restrictive contracts. Since then-Senator Barack Obama started running for office, Americans have started to care about our nation and government at unprecedented levels. Today’s youth is more interested in making our country better for all of us, and the amount of talent out there willing to volunteer is amazing. With expanding implementation of open source, the government opens the doors for more Americans to contribute based on their specialty fields. Legions of volunteers motivated by sense of civic duty will improve government information management infrastructure better than any corporation interested only in the bottom line.