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PRESS RELEASE

 

DISA EARNS NATIONAL GOSCON HONORS

Arlington – The Defense Information Service Agency announced that the Government Open Source Conference recognized the DISA Manpower, Personnel and Security Directorate's Open Source Corporate Management Information Systems (OSCMIS) team with its "Excellence Awards for Open Source Business Use in Government" award in the category of “Special Business or Mission Requirements.” Richard Nelson, Chief of DISA’s Personnel Systems Support Branch and supervisor of the development team, received GOSCON’s nod in a letter on Friday, Oct. 30.

Nelson leads a team of eight employees who have created, manage and continually enhance DISA’s Open Source Corporate Management Information System.  A core product within DISA’s IT systems, OSCMIS is a Web-based Federal workforce management, workflow, and administrative software suite with more than 50 applications and tools to manage human resource, training, security, acquisition and related functions.  OSCMIS currently supports 16,000 government civilians, military personnel, and DISA contractors at more than 40 sites around the world, including at least one tactical location in Iraq.

Believing that all government agencies could benefit from utilizing the solution, Nelson led DISA’s effort to make OSCMIS available to the public in 2009 through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Open Source Software Institute. By distributing the program under an open source license, the Government retains access to the system without having to worry that they'll have to repay for the development of something that was originally created with public funds. At that same time, commercial, academic and non-profit entities can collaboratively pursue the research, development and training required to continue to support the system. This approach not only lets others use the functionality but also lets DISA leverage their good ideas and modifications to improve DISA's system.

Nelson and other award recipients will be honored at GOSCON 2009’s luncheon on November 5, 2009. The GOSCON awards are designed recognize government employees or teams who have made significant accomplishments in the application of Open Source Technology to meet government business or mission requirements.

DISA, a Combat Support Agency, engineers and provides command and control capabilities and enterprise infrastructure to continuously operate and assure a global net-centric enterprise in direct support to joint warfighters, National level leaders, and other mission and coalition partners across the full spectrum of operations.  We are leaders enabling information dominance in defense of our Nation. Find out more about DISA at DISA.MIL.

The Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) is a non-profit (501 c6) organization comprised of corporate, government, academic and Open Source Community representatives 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.