White House Offers ‘We The People’ Petition App Under Open Source License - morrisonwastoponcen

The source code of "We The Populate," the online system that can be used by citizens to render their petitions to the White Mansion, is being offered as open reservoir software, an authorised said on Th.

"Right away anybody, from other countries to the smallest organizations to civic hackers can take this code and put to their own use up," wrote Macon Philips, director of digital strategy in a Emily Price Post connected the White House web log. IT is the first big code going by his team up, he added.

We The People is settled connected the Drupal unprotected reservoir content management political platform, and was exploited to file petitions against the Stop Online Plagiarisation Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two polemical bills that prompted widespread online protests because of their potential to ban parts of the Internet. Petitions that reach 25,000 signatures within 30 days get an official response from President Barack Obama's administration, as happened in the case of SOPA and Pipa.

Since We The Mass went live in September 2011, thousands of petitions have gathered millions of signatures from people nationally, Philips aforesaid. "One of the virtually provocative prospects of open sourcing We the People is getting feedback, ideas and code contributions from the open," wrote Philips, adding that there is much that can personify done to improve the system. By offering the political program in open source, Philips hopes to do good from easy coaction with designers and engineers across the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The bigger potential comes from the fact that the source codification for the application has been released in a way that allows anybody to download a copy, lay down changes, and use information technology for their own projects, Philips said. The code was posted on GitHub, a code monument that allows people to share cipher and process cipher together, and was licensed under the GNU General Public Certify (GPL) version 2 or later.

Drupal developers who contribute to the project take in to grant a world-wide, royalty-detached, perpetual, and sealed, non-exclusive, transferable license to altogether users under the damage of the GPL2 license.

Development Continues

The team at the White House is as wel preparation to improve the software themselves. We The People is still seen as make in progress that currently exists at a very basic level of functionality, accordant to a moving map.

One of the important priorities is to develop an application computer programing interface (API) that testament allow users to sign a petition via a third-party website. The topical platform requires users to visit the web site directly in order to create or sign a petition. The White Theater tech squad is also planning to improve social media integration that goes further then staple joint of the petitions. It wants to make it possible for people to sign a prayer by for example using the 'Like' feature along Facebook.

The tech chemical group at the White Business firm is also working on a mobile interface for We The People to make the service accessible to motorized dealings on the web.

Loek covers all things tech for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/460862/white_house_offers_we_the_people_petition_app_under_open_source_license.html

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