The United States and other governments spend tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars per year funding research for the benefit of their own populations and of mankind. This research results in large amounts of software technology in bleeding edge areas that is ripe for development into disruptive products. However, much of this research is opaque and unavailable to the common software developer, being dished out to those parties known to have an interest in it rather than widespread dissemination and collaboration like the Open Source world enjoys.

Bringing modern Open Source practices into institutional research provides a better means of spreading, utilizing and commercializing these technologies and fulfilling the basic charters of these institutions. I have spent the last year and a half changing how government research interfaces with the Open Source world in order to take advantage of these new, superior models. I would like to share my tactics, my successes, my setbacks and my vision for where we are going and how it will change the world.