The Defense Department has introduced an open source program in a move to facilitate collaboration on unclassified code among software developers in the federal government and private sector.The Code.mil initiative is designed to allow software developers to review, exchange data and recommend changes to software code stored in an online repository in support of DoD’s national security projects, DoD said Thursday.
The Defense Digital Service leads the initiative that seeks to expedite the software development process by hosting the DoD program code on the GitHub platform.
DDS will also gather public comments on a draft version of the Defense Open Source Agreement that calls for the integration of open-source licenses into the department’s software projects.
“We hope this agreement will serve as a bridge so we can use widely adopted open source licenses even without U.S. copyright protections,†said Sharon Woods, DDS legal counsel.
DDS expects to finalize the terms of the agreement by the end of March.
