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Interoperability
Government interoperability and open source
Government interoperability: Microsoft technology for open government
Achieving the goals of improved transparency, public participation, and collaboration (government interoperability) called for by open government demands new thinking and new processes. For starters, it will require unprecedented integration among government agencies and their IT environments. Interoperability, cloud services, and open source development can help provide the flexible infrastructure government agencies need to meet today’s mandates.
When you are ready to move forward on open government features, we recommend these resources:
Open government/government 2.0 guide

Government interoperability

Sensible integration of diverse legacy systems generates a rich, creative technology landscape to support open government goals, such as collaboration and innovation. Microsoft participates in a variety of interoperability organizations, including:
Interop Vendor Alliance, a community of software and hardware vendors working together to enhance interoperability with Microsoft systems on behalf of our mutual customers.
The Open XML community, a group of public institutions, businesses, technology professionals, academics, and developers who support ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML as an ISO/IEC standard.
Voices for Innovation (VFI), a community of technology professionals, including Microsoft Partners, who promote innovation, technology choice, and job growth by supporting pro-technology and pro-business policies, including interoperability.
Interoperability and Microsoft
Standards and Microsoft
Software-plus-Services
Services in the cloud offer flexibility and the opportunity to reduce costs, strengthen core capabilities, and increase business agility. Include cloud services in your open government strategy when you need to get up and running quickly and scale to accommodate variable loads. Microsoft cloud services can help you implement online communications and data transfer, internal and external portals for online interaction and publishing, document management, customer relationship management, and more.
Open Source
Microsoft participates actively in open source through Microsoft engineers and product teams, with industry partners, and with OSS projects to develop interoperable solutions that meet customer needs.
Industry Reports
"Best Practices: Improve Development Effectiveness Through Strategic Adoption Of Open Source" By Jeffrey Hammond, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, February 2nd, 2009 | Portable Document Format, 890 KB
"Predicts 2009: The Evolving Open-Source Software Model" By Mark Driver, Vice President, Gartner, December 2008
"Open Source Is Not A Business Model" By Matthew Aslett, Analyst, The 451 Group, October 2008 | Portable Document Format, 1.7 MB
"Participation in a World of Choice" Perspectives on open source and Microsoft, March 2009 | Portable Document Format, 352 KB
Microsoft Open Source Resources
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
BARACK OBAMA
January 21, 2009
From Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on Transparency and Open Government
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