Dive Brief:
- New White House guidelines issued Tuesday will require federal government agencies that create new custom-developed source code to share it with other federal agencies.
- The so-called Federal Source Code Policy was designed to encourage access to custom-developed Federal source code.
- The policy includes a pilot program that will require federal agencies to share at least a percentage of their new code with the public.
Dive Insight:
Federal CIO Tony Scott said the federal government spends more than $6 billion on software through more than 42,000 transactions each year. By sharing source code, Scott hopes to reduce those costs, promote collaboration and encourage private sector talent to participate in code-building.
"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," Scott said in a blog post.
The new policy also commits to the development of a new portal, Code.gov, within 90 days. The portal will contain tools, best practices and other information to help encourage government collaboration with the public.
