Congratulations are in order for the launching this past weekend of the National Center for Open Source Policy and Research (NCOSPR). This part think-tank, part resource centre and part lobby group is certainly welcomed and needed. Given the well-monied resources now being used to lobby against the preference for open source and open standards, it's about time that an organization came forward to extend the open source community in the fields of academia and politics in the way described on the NCOSPR website.

I've known founder John Weathersby for quite a while now, ever since he was involved in marketing for the now-moribund SAIR certification program. He has since been doing a great job advancing open source into the US government and military through the Open Source Software Institute, and NCOSPR looks to be the natural next step.

This achievement is all the more impressive given that John has to be evacuated from his Mississippi home during hurricane Katrina, and has had to deal with recovery from that.

I'm delighted for John, wish him and his team the best of luck. I look forward to seeing this model extended to other countries.