18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "code.gov is the next milestone in federal open source code"
date: 2016-11-07
authors:
- andre
tags:
- open source
- presidential innovation fellows
- general services administration
- code.gov
- product launch
excerpt: "Last week, U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott announced the launch of code.gov, another important milestone in the federal government’s adoption of open source code. The new site provides access to more than 50 open source projects from 13 federal agencies."
image: /assets/blog/code-gov/homepage-2016.jpg
---
Last week, U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott announced the
launch of [code.gov](https://code.gov/), another important milestone in
the federal government’s adoption of open source code. The new site
provides access to more than 50 open source projects from 13 federal
agencies. The potential benefits of code.gov stretch across America, as
Scott [said in his
announcement](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2016/11/03/peoples-code-now-codegov):

> We’re excited about today’s launch, and envision code.gov becoming yet
> another creative platform that gives citizens the ability to
> participate in making government services more effective, accessible,
> and transparent. We also envision it becoming a useful resource for
> State and local governments and developers looking to tap into the
> Government’s code to build similar services, foster meaningful
> connections with their users, and help us continue to realize the
> President’s vision for a 21st Century digital government.

code.gov comes on the heels of the [Federal Source Code
Policy](https://sourcecode.cio.gov/), which requires agencies to release
at least 20 percent of their new custom-developed code each year as open
source. This new site will become a central place to find all of these
projects and will help agencies meet the goals of the Federal Source
Code Policy.

Right now you can find code from [General Services Administration](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/agencies/GSA)
projects like the [Draft U.S. Web Design Standards](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/repos/35968578) and [apps.gov](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/repos/50465059). You can
also find [3D resources](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/repos/22180681) from [NASA](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/agencies/NASA), [data standards](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/repos/64396310) from the [Department of
Agriculture](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/agencies/USDA), and the code that powers [the White House’s We the People
petition site](https://code.gov/#/explore-code/repos/5532200).

code.gov was created by GSA’s Presidential Innovation Fellows, 18F, and
the Office of the U.S. Chief Information Officer. We encourage you to
take a look at all the great code produced by the federal government,
reuse it for your own projects, and contribute back to improve
government digital services for the entire public. If you’re interested
in trying out open source in your agency (you totally should) check out
our [Open Source Guide](https://pages.18f.gov/open-source-guide/) to
help make your code easy to use and understand and our [Open Source
Policy](https://18f.gsa.gov/open-source-policy/) to see how it works at
18F.