For any service to be put in front of the public, it has to meet the Digital Service Standard, a set of 18 criteria. One of them is that all new source code is made open and published under an open source licence. In this post, Anna Shipman explains why coding in the open makes things better.

Source: The benefits of coding in the open

Namely:

  • It encourages good practice
  • It makes collaboration easier
  • External users can help make it better
  • Others can learn from your work
  • It makes it easier to share standards
  • It improves transparency on government’s work
  • It clarifies ownership
  • It helps make government technology seamless
  • It’s easier to code in the open than to open a closed repository
  • Make your own code open