U.S. Navy and OSSI Initiate Open Source CRADA Activities

Government and industry representatives gathered on Tuesday, March 22, 2005, at Stennis Space Center to launch the second open source software research and development program between the U.S. Navy and the Open Source Software Institute ( OSSI ).

The effort is part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement ( CRADA ) between OSSI and the Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command ( CNMOC ). The three-year R&D program will explore the Navy's usage of open source software within the Naval Oceanographic Office's ( NAVOCEANO ) web services, scientific computing and enterprise architecture systems.

The CRADA is the second such major R&D program between the U.S. Navy and OSSI ( www.oss-institute.org ). The initial CRADA between the Navy and OSSI was conducted between October 2001 and 2004, and enabled the Navy to identify and document extensive usage of open source applications and programs within their enterprise systems.

OSSI is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the development and implementation of open source solutions within government environments. OSSI has fielded a team of industry and academic representatives to administer the program in conjunction with NAVOCEANO and CNMOC personnel.

The OSSI CRADA team will be lead by Barry Duplantis of Red Hat, Inc. ( NSDQ: RHAT ). Duplantis will serve as the OSSI CRADA team program manager and will coordinate the activities of all participating industry program members. Red Hat ( www.redhat.com ) has also dedicated additional technical resources and business analysis personnel to the OSSI CRADA team.

Waltham, MA-based Black Duck Software will also serve as a technical contributor to the OSSI CRADA team. Black Duck ( www.blackducksoftware.com ), the leading provider of open source software compliance management solutions, will be providing their expertise and code analysis services as part of the Navy CRADA.

The OSSI CRADA team will include representatives from the academic world. Two universities will participate as members of the OSSI CRADA team; Syracuse University and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Dr. Scott Bernard will lead a team from Syracuse University's School of Information Studies ( http://istweb.syr.edu/ ). The Syracuse team will address issues of Enterprise Architecture ( EA ) management practices, planning context and methodology.

Dr. Andrew Strelzoff of the University of Southern Mississippi will direct a team from the Southern Miss School of Science and Technology's Department of Computer Science ( http://www.usm.edu/css/ ). Dr. Strelzoff's team will develop and implement new and unique "code only" software tools designed to study the Navy's software development, maintenance and restructuring processes.

About the Open Source Software Institute

The Open Source Software Institute is a non-profit ( 501 c 6 ) organization whose mission is to promote the development and implementation of open source software solutions within U.S. federal, state and municipal government agencies and academic entities. Information on OSSI activities, and a results briefing on the initial Navy CRADA can be found on the OSSI website at: http://oss-institute.org .

About Red Hat, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat builds and maintains the Red Hat Linux distribution of the Linux operating system for Intel, DEC Alpha, and Sun SPARC platforms. Red Hat also publishes and maintains commercial applications for Linux including OSF Motif, CDE, and the Applixware Office Suite. For more information about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com.

About Black Duck Software
Founded in 2002, Waltham, Massachusetts-based Black Duck is the leading provider of software compliance management solutions for governing software assets. Black Duck's customer base includes enterprises, vendors, law firms and other organizations worldwide. For more information about Black Duck, visit www.blackducksoftware.com,

About CNMOC

Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command ( http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil ) is a third echelon operational command reporting to Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command ( http://www.cffc.navy.mil/ ).

The Command is aligned to and focused on the Navy's five warfighting disciplines -- Anti-Submarine Warfare; Special Warfare; Mine Warfare; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; and Fleet Operations ( Strike and Expeditionary ) -- as well as the following warfighting support disciplines: Navigation, Precise Time and Astrometry, Maritime Operations and Aviation Operations.

The command's personnel are located at its headquarters at the John C. Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and at several field activities located around the world.

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