RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, state government agencies are among the largest consumers of computer software within the State; and

WHEREAS, these commercial applications are developed for multiple purposes, some of which are not necessarily compatible with government functions and operations; and

WHEREAS, many commercial software applications contain programming glitches that cannot be fixed by the agencies and thus they are required to hire consultants to modify the software to address these problems; and

WHEREAS, open source software provides the opportunity for state agencies to procure for no or limited costs, software programs or utilities that can be modified by the agency, and thus more closely meet the agency's needs; and

WHEREAS, open source software, upon modification, can be redistributed for use by other agencies that may yet again modify it, resulting in improvements to the software; and

WHEREAS, with the growth of the Internet, the sharing of information technology has rapidly expanded to the point where the philosophy of the open source initiative has been embraced by those in the industry who want to provide community access to mainstream software products; and

WHEREAS, there presently exist criteria that have been adopted by the open source initiative to protect its credibility as well as ensure that no harm is brought to end users of open source software products; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Accounting and General Services (Department) is requested to provide a status report on the current use of open source software applications within state government and to establish a state policy supporting use of open source software applications within government agencies; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department submit a report of findings and recommendations to the Legislature not less than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2004 regular session; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Comptroller, the directors of each state department, the Superintendent of Education, the State Librarian, and the President of the University of Hawaii.

Report Title:

Open Source Software; Assessment and Use Policy