"In a report to President Clinton last year, a group of leading
computer scientists warned that the nation faced a troubling
"software gap."
"The group, made up of corporate executives and university
researchers, said that programmers simply could not keep pace with
exploding demand for high-quality software -- the computer code
needed for everything from Internet commerce to nuclear weapons
design. To bridge the gap, the group said, the nation must not only
train more skilled programmers but also explore fresh, even
radical, approaches to developing and maintaining software."
"In a new report, the group, known as the President's
Information Technology Advisory Committee, will recommend that the
federal government back "open source software as an alternate path
for software development," according to a draft copy of the report,
which will be sent to the White House and published in a matter of
weeks."
