State and Local Governments Join Together to Share Computer Code

Announced Wednesday, a collection of state and local governments have formed a new collaboration group to encourage the sharing of computer code that is developed for and by government.

The entity, called the Government Open Code Collaborative (GOCC), is a voluntary undertaking not affiliated with any professional organization or private sector company.

The GOCC has established a code repository for code deposit and withdrawal, at no cost, that is accessible by signatories of the GOCC Agreement. Certain portions of the site are also accessible by entities that are observers but have not yet signed the Agreement. In addition, there is a public section available to the general public. Code deposited in the repository will be code sharable within the government sector.

The repository will also support collaboration among government entities in the areas of software development, best practices and potential solutions to government business problems.

By sharing various government technology investments with other like entities, GOCC participants expect to reap continual benefits of the wider community's innovation and improvement to the shared product.

The GOCC adopted the following rules:

• The GOCC will be entirely independent and not affiliated with any professional or private sector entity.
  
  
• The GOCC will accept no financial or in-kind assistance from any private sector company.
  
  
• All initial members will be either municipalities, legal entities of state government, or academic non-profit institutions.

Four officer positions were established to serve for one year:

• Chairperson: Peter Quinn, CIO, Commonwealth of Mass.
  
  
• Municipality Representative: Mike Wells, CIO, Gloucester, Mass.
  
  
• Technical Lead: Jim Willis, CIO, Secretary of State, R.I.
  
  
• Policy Lead: Patrick McCormick, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government

Current members of the GOCC are the Massachusetts Information Technology Division; the Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State; the Pennsylvania Office of Information Technology; the Utah Governor's Office, CIO Section; the Kansas Secretary of State Office; the Kansas Treasurer's Office; the Missouri Secretary of State Office; the West Virginia Auditor's Office; the City of Gloucester, MA; the City of Worcester, MA; and the City of Newport News, VA.