Credits: opensource.com, CC-BY-SA
Today, Red Hat officially announced it’s move to downtown Raleigh, part of Raleigh’s Creative District. Good news for the economy: Raleigh’s goal is to “establish a growing ecosystem of partners and providers around the open source leader and to bolster Raleigh’s reputation as a leading open source community.”
The City of Raleigh is prioritizing collaboration and transparency with the community to make the open source philosophy more strategic. The city has already demonstrated it’s commitment to open collaboration with citizens. I witnessed it first hand when the public process to review the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan started a few years ago. I helped to organize citizens to collaboratively review and provide feedback on the plan, leading to increased citizen input and ultimately, a better plan.
A more open government is making its way to the top of the list, but the economy and business climate continue to hold mindshare. Mayor McFarlane said, “Open source is a philosophy that has had a widespread impact both in creating software and in creating culture. Collaboration, transparency, and openness represent the future of our business community—helping to foster a climate for innovation and business growth.”
There is some work to do on the policy side to align its open source priorities. The culture needed to achieve this is already here. A vibrant, open-minded community has created and enjoyed the likes of SPARKcon. And citizens worked side-by-side with the city to host the first CityCamp Raleigh event last June.
A movement last Summer to get an open government/open source resolution passed, stalled. And I think this is a great opportunity to revive this directive. With a recently elected city council that seems to be pro-open source, real progress could be made.