At the director's suggestion, I talked to the state's chief information officer. Having access to the source code allows the entity using the software to contribute to its further development and more easily develop other software that interacts with it. Perhaps this is the open-source encouragement Allchin was referring to. Allchin didn't realize this before flapping his trap. He would have known that his war may already have been won without any battles being fought.
Open source is here to stay.
Open government has a ways to go.