Phase2 Technology Announces OpenPublic, a Drupal Distribution for Federal Agency Use to Satisfy Open Government Initiative and Beyond

Open Government & Innovations Conference, Washington, DC– May 5, 2010 – Today Phase2 Technology announces an open source solution to help government agencies build websites and collaboration tools using the Drupal platform while satisfying the unique needs of the federal government environment.

As a Drupal distribution, OpenPublic is a packaged solution aimed at forward-looking government agencies seeking to meet the open government initiative’s demand for greater transparency, participation and collaboration. OpenPublic is being developed as a community effort with Phase2, one of the leading companies in the space spearheading it.

“We have learned from building Drupal distributions for other industries (like OpenPublish for publishers) and are applying the knowledge to the Federal government where we also have strong expertise,” said Jeff Walpole, Phase2 Technology CEO.

OpenPublic consists of Drupal core - configured for the domain, community contributed modules, custom federal modules and pre-fab site building for common government needs. Developed with considerations like security, privacy, and unique federal requirements as well as the needs for open government, OpenPublic gets agencies on the path to Drupal quickly. Federal agencies are struggling to find tools that will allow them to easily get public information and data online, in a user-friendly format.

They also need to make government more participatory by encouraging public commenting and feedback on that information. OpenPublic will allow government agencies to nimbly respond to changing information demands and engage citizens. “There is great potential for open source web tools to help make government more open and collaborative. Drupal is up to that challenge,” said Walpole.

To learn more go to Open Source.Open Minds.