NASA, best known as the guys who invented Velcro, will be holding an Open Source Summit on March 29-30, bringing together researchers and experts in the field of open source “to discuss the challenges with the existing open source policy framework, and propose modifications that would make it easier for NASA to develop, release, and use open source software.”

While the agency is no stranger to open source, the organizers hope “to establish the processes, policies, and culture needed to encourage and support open source development” in order to fully realize its benefits.

Speakers include Pascal Finette, Director of Mozilla Labs, and Dr. Robert Sutor, Vice President of Open Systems at IBM.