STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss.–Oct. 10, 2001–
The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) will join forces with
the Open-Source Software Institute to study the Navy’s use of
open-source software.
Rear Admiral Thomas Q. Donaldson, V, commander of the Naval
Meteorology and Oceanography Command, recently signed a Cooperative
Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Open-Source
Software Institute (OSSI), a non-profit organization comprised of
high-tech industry, government agency and academic entity
representatives.
Open-source is a collective term for software whose license
requires its source code, or internal blue print, to be open,
extensible and freely distributed. The most well known open-source
program is the Linux operating system.
The CRADA will be administered through NAVOCEANO, which is based
at the Stennis Space Center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The cooperative program is designed to promote the exchange of
information between NAVOCEANO and OSSI. “The CRADA’s goal is to
produce a technical study and report concerning NAVOCEANO’s current
use of open-source software and to offer recommendations on
additional open-source software solutions that can be incorporated
into the Navy’s system,” said OSSI chairman, John Weathersby.
“This is an excellent opportunity for members of the open-source
community to work with representatives of the Navy,” he continued.
“One of OSSI’s main goals is to foster cooperative relationships
between industry and the Department of Defense. We have found the
leadership at NAVOCEANO to be very responsive and interested in
potentially enhancing their systems’ capabilities through the use
of open source software.”
NAVOCEANO’s (www.navo.navy.mil) primary mission
is to collect and analyze data on the world’s oceans for the Navy
and other Department of Defense agencies. As host to one of the
world’s largest supercomputing centers and the world’s largest
oceanographic library, NAVOCEANO gathers information by airborne,
surface and subsurface platforms deployed worldwide. The
information is then provided as a wide variety of products and
services to the Joint Warfighters in all mission areas.
Several of the information gathering operations rely on Linux as
a mission critical application.
“After an initial review, we found significant interest in the
use of open-source software, particularly Linux, within some of our
departments,” said NAVOCEANO chief information officer, John Lever.
“The Linux systems we have in place perform very well. Through the
CRADA, we will have the opportunity to review our current
utilization of open-source applications and see if it’s prudent to
implement similar solutions in other areas.”
The Open-Source Software Institute is a non-profit organization
comprised of industry, government and academic representatives
whose mission is to promote the development and implementation of
open-source software solutions within U.S. Federal and State
government agencies and academic entities.
CONTACT: Open-Source Software Institute
John Weathersby, 662/236-1794 jmw@visioncreek.com