Acquia and Phase 2 have teamed up to offer OpenPublic 1.0 – a Drupal-based content management system designed specifically for open government initiatives that is designed to use the volumes of online content to spur citizen engagement and provide improved digital experiences. The offering is FISMA compliant.
OpenPublic 1.0 offers all functionality in a collection of apps, simplifying all of the distribution’s out-of-the-box functionality. By using Acquia’s open cloud platform, OpenPublic enables US government agencies to achieve and sustain compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).
Drupal is an open source content management system that is supported by a broad-based developer community instead of a single vendor like a majority of content management systems aimed at government. Both Acquia and Phase2 are developer supporters of Drupal and offer their own platforms with additional features set for Drupal users.
At the state and local level, San Mateo County, CA is using OpenPublic to support more than 20 departmental websites. The county says the offering has allowed it to maintain a similar look and feel across all government websites, even though different services are being offered across each one.
Version 1.0 is the first full release, based off of user testing from other government agencies and departments including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Wilson Center, and the Georgia Technology Authority.
“County leadership could only be convinced to adopt open source if they were assured the system was secure and accessible, OpenPublic delivered both,” said Beverly Thames, Content and Collaboration Manager for San Mateo County.
