NewsForge has an interesting piece on the U.S. Census Bureau's usage of open source for many of its web-based data mining services. “If you're checking out demographic information at the U.S. Census Bureau's Web site, there's a chance the information is courtesy of several Open Source tools. Two senior technology architects with the Census Bureau's Internet division said the low cost of Open Source software, plus strong support from the developer and user communities make Open Source the right choice for several Web-based projects at Census.gov.”
On several Web projects, the Census Bureau has used the LAMP suite of Open Source tools: Linux, the Apache Web server, the MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP and Python programming languages. In addition to saving tax dollars, Open Source software makes sense at an agency that uses a combination of Linux, Unix and SGI machines — and even a couple of Windows boxes, said Nyman.
“[Open Source] fits our heterogeneous environment,” Nyman said, listing off some benefits. “In government, we don't have to worry about procurement — purchase orders, contracts, anything like that. We have access to support, which some people say is a myth. We actually know a lot of the authors of the Open Source software; we know them personally and professionally. It really helps when you can call up Joe and say, 'hey, there's a problem with your modules, can you help with it?' Or even, 'boy, it would really help us if you added this.' “