White House Steps Up Open Source Activities

December 11, 2012 By News Staff

A recent announcement proves that the White House is becoming more involved in the open source software community. Whitehouse.gov is based on Drupal, an open source content management platform, and the White House has previously released source code for several Drupal modules. Now, developers in the Obama administration are working with the Drupal community to improve 'We the People,' the White House's online petition system. The White House plans to release a “white label” theme for its 'We the People' website that will allow others to re-use the code and create their own petition websites, according to a White House Blog post.

“While an open source approach isn't the right solution for every software need, using and contributing back to open source software is one way that we're making it easier for the government to share data, improve tools and services, and return value to taxpayers,” the blog post reads. “That's why President Obama's Digital Government Strategy encourages departments and agencies to participate in open source communities and adopt open source platforms.”

Web developers in the White House also collaborate with the open source community on Github, offering White House mobile apps. The White House website offers a page for developers interested in using their open source tools at whitehouse.gov/developers. Developers can also track the White House's open source activity through the White House's Github profile.

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White House 'We the People' Site, Explained

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