“The views expressed in this academic research paper are those
of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position
of the US government or the Department of Defense.” — C. Justin
Seiferth, Maj USAF
“I have long been an active participant in the development of
software for use by the government and others on the internet.
Given this interest, I welcomed the opportunity afforded me during
my stay at Air Command and Staff College to examine how the ideas
of open licensing may be applied to our work and of benefit to both
the Air Force mission, the Department of Defense and hopefully the
taxpayers as a whole.
“As a result of the success of the Open Source Movement and the
World Wide Web spawned by its products, you’ll notice that the
bibliography of this paper relies heavily on periodicals and titles
which you won’t find in the Air University catalogue. I thank the
many people who have taken the time to post their information and
opinions on the internet for the enrichment of others. I owe a debt
of gratitude to the Air University librarians for helping with the
many interlibrary loan requests I made.
“There’s a Chinese saying that the philosophy of one century is
the common sense of the next. There are many controversial ideas in
this paper; ideas which may at first seem foreign and even
counterintuitive. Much of the work in this area is based on the
personal beliefs of a few outstanding individuals. I’ll let the
validity of their beliefs stand on the success of their results and
revolution they have sparked.”