USDOT is applying the open source concept to a big initiative for the first time.  There have been other ITS programs where this has been examined:  QuickZone, NGSIM, TRANSIMS Open Source.

The push for open source here is a realization that no one program has enough resources to solve the problem completely.  The open source research and development concept is good for taking on those issues things that are really hard to solve, where collective thinking is needed to solve the problem.

Secondly, the intellectual capital is preserved and available.  Typically when research is conducted, the rest of the community benefits from the research only when a publication comes out.  Once the project ends, the value starts to decline over time due to lost or poor documentation. But with the open source approach there is the potential to manage and grow intellectual capital. 

Finally, the open source concept brings together stakeholders in a way that traditional, proprietary development does not. The open source concept allows multiple researchers and developers to work together in solving complex problems.

Resources need to be prioritized based on expected impact.  But if stakeholders are not interested in an application and no one will use it, there is no point in making significant investments on that application.

Finally, the program will put in place mechanisms for long term stewardship.

For example, if early data environments aren’t fully fledged or have limited amount of data due to low market penetration, only a few applications may be supported.  But as the market penetration increases, and with additional data flowing in, the range of applications that are supported by the data environment might increase.

We will be looking at the combination of applications that can be supported at each stage as the program evolves from the current state to the end state.