I was pretty floored at last year’s DrupalCon when Dave Cole, from the White House’s office of the CIO, announced that the federal government of the United States was going to contribute 4 new modules used in Whithouse.gov to the Drupal Community.

On the macro-level there was the wonderment that comes with watching a paradigm shift unfold in right in front of your eyes. It seemed as though the government had gone from notoriously proprietary and hooked on corporate contracts and waterfall planning to a full-fledged open source contributor in a matter of months. Furthermore, not only were smart decisions being made, they were being proudly declaimed and we were all invited to partake.

And it wasn’t just the mere fact that the federal government was contributing to open source that was so exciting: it was the actual code that they were contributing, and one module in particular: GovDelivery.

GovDelivery provided a gateway between Drupal and the mailing service that is quickly becoming the de facto standard for many state and federal governmental agencies. As soon as the module was released Drupal became an incredibly competitive solution for projects at the FTC, NSF and any of the other municipal, state and local government offices that use GovDelivery (sure, there are only 12 reported installs, but I’m betting many of the orgs that would use this module have Update Status disabled).

Recently, White House New Media Director Macon Phillips tweeted to announce the release of new Drupal modules that enhance the venerable IMCE asset management plugin for Drupal’s WYSIWYG integrations (more in this White House.gov blog post). The new features may not be as groundbreaking as initial set (though, for site builders like us they are perhaps much more handy), and this is certainly not a game-changing moment like that initial announcement (though the news that the White House is making use of the wonderful Development Seed suite of OpenAtrium, Context, Boxes, and other modules is exciting…from Groupware to Govware?).

But what is remarkable about this latest announcement is that it is a demonstration of the true importance of the government’s commitment to open source. It’s proof that those earlier modules were not a one-shot deal, and shows that Drupal’s having found acceptance within US governmental organizations will be a long-lasting source of for tools that can democratize the technology that underlies our democracy.

Bravo.