Open Source Sharing Platforms¶
About this policy
These policies promote the establishment of centralized platforms where government institutions can publish, access, and collaborate on open-source software. Such platforms aim to improve discoverability, foster reuse across agencies, and support transparency in public digital development.
What we include
This section includes national code repositories, official sharing portals, or platform strategies specifically designed for hosting, curating, or managing open-source software produced by or for the public sector.
🌍 Policies¶
🇨🇦 Canada¶
- 🔗 Open Resource Exchange
- 📄 Overview:
The Open Resource Exchange is the Government of Canada's official platform for sharing and collaborating on open-source software developed by public administrations at all levels: federal, provincial, municipal, and Indigenous. It facilitates the discovery, reuse, and co-development of open-source solutions by offering centralized access to code repositories, standards, and design assets. As part of the Municipal Innovation Pilot Project, the platform aims to enhance transparency, promote interoperability, and support the collective development of digital public goods across Canada.
🇪🇪 Estonia¶
- 🔗 Koodivaramu Open Source Platform
- 📄 Overview:
Estonia’s Koodivaramu platform serves as a centralized repository for sharing government-developed open-source software. Managed by the Information System Authority (RIA), it facilitates collaboration among public sector institutions by hosting and documenting reusable software components, primarily through GitLab. The platform promotes transparency, reuse, and co-development across agencies, aligning with Estonia’s broader digital governance and interoperability goals.
🇫🇷 France¶
- 🔗 Interministerial Free Software Base (SILL)
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📄 Overview:
Hosted on data.gouv.fr, the SILL dataset serves as an open-source sharing platform by making a curated list of government-recommended OSS publicly accessible in multiple formats and via API. Maintained by DINUM, it enables collaboration, reuse, and transparency across the public sector.
- 📄 Overview:
Code.gouv.fr serves as France’s central platform for sharing government-developed open-source software. Managed by the Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM), it aggregates public code repositories, promotes interagency collaboration, and links to national initiatives like the SILL and BlueHats, supporting a unified ecosystem for open-source reuse and contribution.
🇩🇪 Germany¶
- 🔗 Strategy for Strengthening Digital Sovereignty in Public Sector IT (2021)
- 📄 Overview:
The strategy promotes open-source sharing through a central code repository for public administration, supporting code reuse and collaboration. It highlights the openCoDE platform as a tool to develop sovereign digital solutions across government levels in cooperation with OSS communities.
🇮🇹 Italy¶
- 🔗 Guidelines on the acquisition and reuse of software for public administrations
- 📄 Overview:
This document establishes a two-tiered system for sharing government-developed open source software. As detailed in Section 3.4.1, public administrations must first publish their source code on a public "code hosting tool" that meets specific criteria for collaboration and version control. Subsequently, Section 3.4.2 mandates that all released software must be registered on the Developers Italia platform. This central platform, managed by the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID), functions as the official search engine and catalog, ensuring that all public software is discoverable and accessible for reuse by other administrations.
🇰🇷 South Korea¶
- 🔗 OpenUP (Open Source Software Support Center)
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📄 Overview:
OpenUP is a national open-source support platform established by the Ministry of Science and ICT and NIPA to promote sharing and collaboration around government and community developed OSS. It serves as both a physical and digital hub offering co-working spaces, technical consulting, training through initiatives like the “Contribution Academy,” and structured support for startups, developers, and public institutions. By centralizing OSS-related resources, OpenUP strengthens the ecosystem and fosters reuse and adoption of open-source software across sectors.
- 📄 Overview:
The National OSS Portal (oss.kr), operated by NIPA under the Ministry of Science and ICT, is Korea’s official platform for promoting open-source software adoption and collaboration. It serves as a central hub for sharing government and community OSS projects, providing access to domestic success stories, licensing and security guidance, training materials, and event listings. By aggregating critical information and resources, the portal enables developers, public institutions, and companies to engage more effectively with open-source initiatives.
🇪🇸 Spain¶
- 🔗 Royal Decree 4/2010 on the National Interoperability Framework
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📄 Overview:
Royal Decree 4/2010 positions software reuse and transfer as essential to digital interoperability in Spain. Articles 16 and 17 require that software developed for public administrations be licensed under terms that allow access, modification, and redistribution. The decree also mandates publication in public repositories and ensures public bodies retain intellectual property rights to facilitate future reuse and cross-agency transfer. These measures aim to reduce duplication, promote efficiency, and enable widespread adoption of shared digital solutions.
- 📄 Overview:
Spain’s Technology Transfer Centre (CTT) serves as a centralized platform for sharing open-source software and digital assets developed by public administrations. Mandated by Article 17 of Royal Decree 4/2010 and reinforced in Article 158 of Law 40/2015, the CTT hosts a public directory of reusable solutions, including source code, documentation, and licensing details. It enables administrations to publish, download, and collaborate on digital tools via the CTT portal and its associated GitHub organization (Forja-CTT). The platform fosters code reuse and community-driven development across government entities, promoting transparency, efficiency, and interoperability in public sector digital services.
🇨🇭 Switzerland¶
- 🔗 Strategic Guidelines for Open Source Software in the Federal Administration
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📄 Overview:
As stated in Measure 9, the administration will examine the possibility of establishing its own publication platform. The document notes in the "Governance and tools" section that while no common platform currently exists, authorities are guided on how to select a repository. This signals a strategic move towards a centralized platform to enhance sovereignty and collaboration.
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🔗 Practical Guidelines for Open Source Software in the Federal Administration
- 📄 Overview:
The guidelines actively direct government bodies to use established public platforms. The "Open source repositories" section identifies GitHub as the world's most popular development platform and notes that numerous Swiss authorities already publish their software there. It also lists other repositories like GitLab and Bitbucket as viable options for publication.
🇬🇧 United kingdom¶
- 🔗 Service Manual: Making Source Code Open and Reusable)
- 📄 Overview:
This guidance from the UK Government Digital Service mandates the use of public repositories, such as GitHub, to share government-developed source code. It encourages departments to publish code from the start of a project and maintain it openly, outlining practices for licensing, version control, and secure publishing. The document serves as a foundational framework for enabling reuse and collaboration through open source sharing platforms across government services.
🇺🇸 United States¶
- 🔗 Federal Source Code Policy (M-16-21)
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📄 Overview:
The policy establishes Code.gov as the central discovery portal for all federal custom-developed code, whether for internal reuse or public release as OSS (Section 7.3). It clarifies that Code.gov is for discovery, not hosting, and directs agencies in Section 7.4 to use existing third-party repository platforms to store and manage the actual source code.
- 📄 Overview:
The guide establishes the GSA organization on GitHub as the primary, centralized platform for agency open source projects. It provides instructions for creating new public repositories under this organization. While other version control systems are acknowledged, the process strongly encourages the use of the GSA GitHub for hosting and managing publicly released code.
🇺🇾 Uruguay¶
- 🔗 Decree No. 44/015: Regulation of Law 19.179 on Digital Information and Software
- 📄 Overview:
Article 7 officially establishes the "Portal de Software Público Uruguayo" (Uruguayan Public Software Portal). This centralized platform serves as the official repository for sharing and discovering software solutions across the public sector, acting as the key infrastructure for software reuse and public release.
🇪🇺 European Commission¶
- 🔗 Open Source Software Strategy 2020-2023: Think Open
- 📄 Overview:
The strategy outlines plans to enable co-creation and collaboration through a centralized platform. As part of its main actions in Section 6.4, it calls for enhancing the Commission's software repository. This aligns with the "Share" principle in Section 5.3, which focuses efforts on creating an EU-centric digital government code repository for its IT projects.
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