The move toward open source in government could very well happen without groups like OSSI, but the organization exists "to educate and help the government understand the opportunities that are available," Jaghori says.

Today, many of the government's open source initiatives are in pilot phase. But, Jaghori predicts, "five years from now, when we have this conversation the role of open source is going to be more dominant."

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in Network World's Software section.