The Obama campaign was not afraid to defy the rules -- because it had to. The only way for Obama to succeed against two political veterans was to play a different game. Now in office, President Obama has the opportunity to take the federal government in a new direction as well.
The Obama campaign web site that revolutionized online politics was created with web tools that are not owned by any company. They are open source. The new administration web sites -- www.whitehouse.gov, and www.recovery.gov -- are also crafted with open, free tools.
Obama should direct the federal government to use hosted and free tools across all branches of government. This will save the government a LOT of money and make it much easier to share this info on the web.
Instead of using Microsoft Office, if government documents were created in Openoffice.org, Google Docs (which is not open source, but is free) or other hosted and open sites, we could all get access right away to important government information. Microsoft Office no longer makes sense in a world that is sharing information on the web rather than in print.
Why should the American taxpayer give Microsoft $400 per every user in the U.S. government for the use of Office? That is hundreds of millions of dollars that we can use for lots of better projects.
How about Microsoft Vista? This operating system has one main function -- to kill productivity. It freezes, crashes and does just about everything except let you get your work done. Why should we pay for a product that does not work? Apple products are great, but they cost even more than Microsoft software.
Open source and hosted tools are being used in the biggest of companies in the US and across the world. Many governments have now issued mandates to use open source tools where possible. The UK, France and Finland are three countries that have a preference for open source tools. The UK just announced its preference for open source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7910110.stm
The French Gendarmerie has saved 70% of its IT budget moving to open platforms. You can read about their savings here: http://www.osor.eu/news/fr-gendarmerie-saves-millions-with-open-desktop-and-web-applications
While the new federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is suspended under a cloud of suspicion, the CTOs of every major branch of government can move ahead with this initiative right away. The logic is simple and the savings are significant.
Open Sesame and Show me the Money!