Open Source Government

What if Government were OpenSource?

I read somewhere that writing regulations is akin to coding: except you are trying to proscribe precise behavior with a VERY imprecise tool (human language).

What if we let a bunch of programmers under the hood of government?

If everything was in a CVS repository (or the like) and anyone could review the entire history of each bill (see exactly who changed what, and where, and when), it would certainly make representatives more accountable.

How would open source principles change an existing government?

How could open source principles be used to create a NEW government?

What DesignPatterns would apply to government?

Don't you just hear the governmental programs screaming "Refactor me!"

In what way are current forms of democratic government not "open source" in the above sense ?

In the sense that the public doesn't have access to who proposes each bill, what changes are made in committee, how various proposals are offered and incorporated into the bill, which amendments are proposed. Technically the information is available, but the lack of open access to the source during the construction process means we end up with buggy code that's hard to change.

Actually, Slashdot covered a story (http://slashdot.org/yro/01/05/13/1921223.shtml) where in some US municipality, there was an ordinance written by a private organization (not unheard of, to have the law text written by a 3rd party), but that firm copyrighted the text, so that to print what the law was, a royalty had to be paid. So, there is precedent for government being considered "closed-source". --PeteHardie

Right. "Technically" - in fact, it appears to be a legal principle, though stories such as the above tend to show that the status of that principle is unclear - citizens have access to the full text of laws, codes, bills, and so on. (Note that there's a difference of principle between having to pay for access to the text of the law - it's not unreasonable to ask citizens to cover the cost of printing, processing requests for information and so on - and a private entity asserting copyright over a text which has force of law.)

Agreed. I have no problem with paying a reasonable fee for the printing costs (for hardcopy). However, since most governments are going to some web-based presence, the full text should be online, and therefore any costs with that (data entry, webifying, etc) should come from the taxes already paid, and I should be able to freely read and electronically copy the full text of all laws applying to me. --PeteHardie

In practice, I suspect there is nowadays a lot more accessible than people in fact ever bother to look at; for instance, my country's laws are at http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/ (a government operated site) and U.S. laws are at http://www.findlaw.com and http://www.house.gov.

Further, citizens are allowed - in fact encouraged - to participate in the writing of laws and so on. There is a selection process involved - a rather arduous one, but in principle not much different from having to email a project head for CVS access.

One thing appears more difficult to do than in OpenSources? contexts - you can't easily fork. Well, you can - see http://www.geocities.com/micronations/ - but I suspect it's not quite parallel.[legal service Ukraine http://www.arzinger.ua/?lang=en]

Frankly, I suspect it's OpenSource which is "like" Government (i.e. somewhat democratic), rather than Government which should be more "like" OpenSource. (Which is not to say that I find current governments perfect, or wouldn't want the whole thing much improved.) The problem is precisely that identified above : the language is very imprecise, and the problem domain absurdly complex. If you really want to try your hand at it, play one of the NomicGames that takes itself more or less seriously, such as Agora. Even with a handful of players and nothing much to legislate about, they manage to make a splendid and entertaining mess of the legislative process.

-- LaurentBossavit