U.S. Governmental Agency Wins Award for Open-Source Website

The United States Small Business Administration, a governmental agency devoted to helping small businesses succeed, recently won the 2008 GCN Technology Leadership Award for its Business.gov website. The site coordinates about 9,000 resources through the Federal government for 21 different agencies. The business.gov website used to be bogged down by proprietary software, creating a difficult infrastructure for users. However, since switching over to free software, the site has experienced a 30% increase in traffic.

The open-source project leader, Nancy Sternberg, used 37Signals’ (Ruby-Based) Basecamp, Google search, Alfresco’s web content management, and MySQL in order to revamp the site. Additionally, the final phase of the overhaul includes dropping the burdensome proprietary program BEA for JBoss. Based on the changes thus far, Sternberg says they have cut costs by 50% from their former BEA implementation and only used two full-time employees to make the transition.

Although the benefits of the change are enormous both to the United States Small Business Administration and the site’s users, the change was not without hang-ups. Sternberg declared the project was “very successful in getting naysayers to quiet down and even step up.” Even in the face of opposition, open-source prevails, providing financially sound solutions to commercial computing needs.

Open-source software is in a stage of revolutionary growth and change. It helps businesses cut costs, improves efficiency and reliability, and provides a large network of technical support. If you are interested in learning more about open-source options in non-profit businesses, the fundraising software developers at Mpower Open can help. Contact them today at 972.220.0340 to learn more.