Open source software has had a difficult time making inroads in government over the years. With corporate giants like Microsoft owning the market share in IT infrastructure, deploying Microsoft solutions on desktops and servers, and implementing SharePoint instead of open source solutions, the adoption of WordPress has been an uphill battle.
In government, the concept of security by obscurity reigns supreme and hinders open source products from gaining traction. In addition, long-term licensing agreements make it difficult for a government entity to depart from long-term “white label” solutions provided by contractors who are implementing and supporting those solutions.
Fortunately, WordPress has begun to see much more adoption inside the halls of government in recent years, as government has taken the same tack as most other industries and has realized the necessity to be online and have blogs.
Though most of this appendix focuses on WordPress usage inside the United States (U.S.) federal government, WordPress is being used at the state and local levels and in other governments around the world. Notably, the availability of open source solutions, including WordPress, has special significance to governments in developing countries being hit hard by recession.
WordPress adoption in the federal government has begun to take hold. Much of this has to do with President Barack Obama, who has embraced social media and the Web as a means to communicate with, and engage, American citizens. The Obama administration seems to have a certain fondness of A
A list of agencies and branches of the military using WordPress was made available to the public. The number of government-owned Web sites that use WordPress has only grown since then. Federal agencies using WordPress include:
- U.S. Army
- U.S. Air Force
- U.S. Navy
- U.S. Marine Corps
- U.S. Coast Guard
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Defense Intelligence Agency
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- National Reconnaissance Office
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Drug Enforcement Administration
- Department of the Treasury
- Department of State
- Department of Homeland Security
- U.S. Census Bureau
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Library of Congress
- Environmental Protection Agency
and the list keeps growing! If so many Federal Agencies are using WordPress, it should be clear that it certainly is a platform to consider!
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