Commerce Department Now Embraces GitHub for 'Collaborative Problem Solving'
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America's data agency can now use GitHub for collaboratively building open source software.
Steve Cooper is the chief information officer at the Commerce Department and Tyrone Grandison is the deputy chief data officer at the Commerce Department. This post originally appeared June 27 on LinkedIn Pulse and has been edited for style.
On June 2, 2016, the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the Commerce Department issued another game-changing announcement: "GitHub can be used to collaboratively build open source software.”
GitHub is a popular tool used by the developer community for version control and collaboratively problem solving.
In May 2016, a technical review of the GitHub was conducted using the department's Technical Review Process, which consists of evaluations in the following areas:
- Terms of Service
- IT security
- Records management
- Privacy
- Section 508 Compliance
Various subject matter experts conducted technical assessments in their specific area of expertise and provided their findings to Commerce’s Technical Review Board, which is composed by enterprise architects from Commerce bureaus. Based on these findings, the TRB recommended the use of GitHub for collaboratively building open source software.
It is hoped that this will be a catalyst for solution development and user engagement in helping the department -- America's data agency -- tackle some of the most challenging and potentially impactful problems before us. Join us.
It should also be noted that the department's Office of Public Affairs has approved the use of GitHub as a social media tool. Please follow the department's guidance on using GitHub available here.