Federal Source Code Policy Requires Agencies To Share Code

The objective behind the White House's Federal Source Code policy is to ensure all agencies make custom-developed source code available for re-use across government. The aim is to make the government work more like developers in the private sector and to encourage sharing and collaboration. The White House officially released its Federal Source Code policy on Aug. 8, designed to support improved access to custom software code developed by or for the US government.

A pilot program will require Federal agencies to release at least a portion of new, custom-developed federal source code to the public, as well as support agencies in going beyond that minimum requirement. The policy should make custom-developed source code broadly available for re-use across the whole of the federal government. It is also designed to encourage agencies to collect data to measure the performance of the pilot.

"By making source code available for sharing and re-use across Federal agencies, we can avoid duplicative custom software purchases and promote innovation and collaboration across Federal agencies," US Chief Information Officer Tony Scott wrote in a blog post Monday. "By opening more of our code to the brightest minds inside and outside of government, we can enable them to work together to ensure that the code is reliable and effective in furthering our national objectives"...