I think it's about the only way to do so. Navigating a complex bureaucracy like the DoD requires an insider's knowledge. Not everyone who works for complex bureaucracies is evil; many are trying to help them be better (or at least direct its energies at things that are productive to the public).

The bigger problem that seemed to surface through this article is the sense of the "ubercoder" who singlehandedly runs a major project because they can't work with anyone else. I don't know if it was sensationalized by the author of the article, but it does strike me as a major problem in a lot of open source software. IMO, something like OpenSSL is important enough that it should be run by a non-profit.