White House Launches Federal Software Code's New Home
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U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott unveiled Code.gov on Thursday.
Federal agencies now have a place to share their custom software code with each other and with the public.
On Thursday, the White House unveiled Code.gov, a repository intended to make government software code more transparent.
That site now houses the code for systems such as Vote.gov, which walks citizens through the voter registration process; Vets.gov, which lets veterans track their benefits; and Data.gov, which stores public federal data.
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The announcement comes after the White House finalized a policy that encourages agencies to share their custom software code—anything they've bought—with each other. It also included a proposed pilot in which agencies must share 20 percent of their custom source code with the public; the policy is designed to reduce duplicative technology contracts and to allow the public to spot-check software for vulnerabilities.
At its launch, Code.gov will house almost 50 open source projects from 10 separate agencies, according to a blog post from U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott. It is also slated to include advice for agencies on implementing their own open source policies.