Posted by Savio Rodrigues

Acquia just launched a new Social Publishing for Open Government program to help U.S. federal agencies meet the government’s Open Government Directive (OGD).  The program provides government agencies with education and implementation services for using Drupal in general and to address OGD.  According to Acquia, services offered by the program include:

• How to propose Drupal as a solution to meet collaboration technology platform requirements for the Open Government Directive plan
• Training and support for setting up a Drupal site at http://www.[agency].gov/open
• Planning for security and scalability of  an organization’s OGD Drupal site
• Design and implementation of Drupal sites to meet specific OGD requirements
• How to get Drupal Certification and Accreditation for Drupal for your agency

Acquia’s vice president of business development, Tim Bertrand, explains:

“Drupal has always seen great success in the government sector and now with the OGD in play, we expect that even more agencies will see the value of Social Publishing in meeting these requirements.”

Acquia will also offer a seminar series for U.S. federal, state and local governments to discuss adoptions and best practices for government use.  This is definitely a smart move as risk averse government agency IT decision makers will take comfort in the successes of their peers with Drupal Social Publishing.

Acquia appears poised to take advantage of the growing interest in open source and social media.  Increased use of Drupal will open the door further to open source usage within governments, in the U.S. and worldwide.  In doing so, Acquia is definitely playing its part as a founding member of Open Source for America.

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About the Author: Savio Rodrigues is a product manager with IBM's WebSphere Software division. He envisions a day when open source and traditional software live in harmony. This site contains Savio's personal views. IBM does not necessarily agree with the views expressed here.