Oregon's CIO, Dugan Petty, says it's not necessarily the money saved or the flexibility gained from open source that makes it most attractive for use in a government setting -- though both of those things are good. What's most important about open source in government is the opportunity to share ideas and solutions with other states that have similar needs and budget restrictions.

Petty says:

Particularly in the economic downturn that we live in, the notion of us continuing to build large systems separately in each state to meet similar needs, often driven by a federal partner, we're all sort of questioning that. With the communities around open source, there's tremendous opportunity to leverage our brain power and our limited assets to build collective systems that meet common needs. It's an interesting way of doing business.

Whether it's regions working together on a system to meet transportation needs, or different states working together to meet a department of corrections need, there's a lot of activity around open source, according to Petty. It's an area to keep an eye on. After all, why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?