Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst issued a statement on Monday applauding President Obama for bringing a culture of openness and participatory governance to the White House. According to Whitehurst, the Obama administration’s commitment to transparency and inclusiveness reflects the same values that are found at the core of the community-driven open source software development model. He cites Republican media consultant Alex Castellanos, who recently described Obama as an “open source” president during a CNN segment.

Predictably, Whitehurst also takes the opportunity to encourage broader government adoption of open source software and open standards. He contends that the federal government has already saved a considerable sum of money by using open source technology and he suggests that millions more could be saved by expanding the government’s open source strategy.

Red Hat CEO praises Obama openness, calls for ODF adoption – Ars Technica

Red Hat’s CEO, in a blog post on Monday, is endorsing the Obama Administration’s call for openness and participation in government by likening the President’s statement to the open source software movement.

Linking to a White House statement in which President Obama calls for transparency, participation, and collaboration in government, Red Hat president/CEO Jim Whitehurst said open source provides an answer to calls for transparency and participation.

Red Hat CEO seeks open source in government – Network World

It’s been exactly a year since former Delta Airlines vice president turned Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst criticized open-source vendors for doing a lousy job of getting customers involved in the community and projects.

Twelve months on, how are things looking?

Little has changed, judging by the general level of hand-wringing at this year’s Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), but Whitehurst has kick started an effort inside Red Hat to find ways of getting customers to participate more actively in his own company’s Linux and middleware projects.

Hey, Red Hat – Open-source help still lousy? • The Register

In an interview with the E-Commerce Times, Whitehurst outlines a few of his guiding management principles, but one struck me as particularly useful in understanding where Red Hat’s product strategy could be going:

The key to steering a company past difficult obstacles is to focus on a few initiatives. “A key lesson, that I think is really important and really hard for business leaders to do, is to prioritize and pick two or three things and knock the cover off the ball. You see it over and over and over again where companies try to do too much.”

Management lessons from Red Hat’s CEO | The Open Road – CNET News

In August Red Hat posted second quarter revenue 29 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago, while its subscription revenue also enjoyed double-digit growth to beat analysts’ estimates. Whitehurst said that while predictions of a recession will likely mean fewer new projects, the economic benefits of going open source are already encouraging proprietary customers to switch.

Red Hat CEO: From the economic rubble, open source will emerge stronger | Computerworld