"The adoption of open source software for all forms of governmental applications is rapidly expanding," said Deborah Bryant, conference director. "We're also seeing other interesting management-related trends in the public sector, such as the addition of open source projects to agency portfolios as a means to recruit and retain staff and increase their skill set. Last year's conference drew such an enthusiastic and response that we're looking forward to a very exciting event this fall."
"Open source" refers to software whose programming code can be viewed, modified and changed by its users. In that way, users have the ability to improve the software, making it better for everyone and speeding the pace of technological improvements. Such software is typically available free of charge, but developers sometimes profit by selling products or services related to the software, such as technical support or "plug ins" that allow the software to perform additional tasks. Some of the more commonly recognized open source software include the Linux operation system and the Firefox Web browser.
According to industry analysts:
- The market for the Linux Operating system alone will approach $38 billion worldwide
- Open source software has been named one of the top five industry trends for 2006
- Market share for leading open-source solutions is growing, with the Linux operating system running on up to one-third of corporate servers, Apache running on two-thirds of all Web servers globally and the Firefox browser representing 10 percent of the browser market.
