#Welcome to Code.mil - an experiment in open source at the Department of Defense! The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces unique challenges in open sourcing its code. Unlike most software projects, code written by U.S. Federal government employees typically doesn’t have copyright protections under U.S. and some international laws. This can make it hard to attach an open source license to our code, and our team here at Defense Digital Service wants to find a solution.
So, we’re trying something a little different.
We'd like your feedback on our proposed open source strategy prior to us releasing our current projects. You can submit a public comment by opening a GitHub issue on this repository before we finalize the agreement at the end of March. The goal is to then use the developed mechanism to open source several projects and encourage and enable others within the DoD community to do so as well.
Based on feedback there is a new version of the proposed strategy at CONTRIBUTING.md.
The CONTRIBUTING.md file explains the copyright and license status of the project being released and describes the contribution process for developers. When copyright is applicable, we intend to use widely adopted licenses in the open source and free software communities.
##Build something with us. The DoD is charged with protecting our citizens and national security. We have an incredibly diverse portfolio spanning from communications, logistics, education, healthcare, and even the next generation of GPS (yes, the GPS!) that supports billions of people across the globe.
We need your help in contributing to our projects to build better products and services for the American people.
##Connect with us. Meet with developers across the DoD who have been tasked with America’s highest priority missions and help build upon their work. We believe that software created by the government should be shared with the public, and we want to collaborate with civic minded peers to make this happen.
##Make us better.
We’ve drafted CONTRIBUTING.md so the DoD can participate in communities that use widely adopted licenses, even where we may not have copyright. This lets us harness the depth and breadth of talent in the open source and free software communities to improve our software and make our code available for public use.
The FAQ is a good place to start for more context about the approach taken and intent behind this initiative.
We want your help to make the open source strategy better. We encourage everybody to open an issue (or a pull request!) with your suggestions before we finalize CONTRIBUTING.md by the end of March and open source our projects!