At the request of President Obama, some government agencies—namely the White House—have recently begun open-sourcing their software. I take this as a sign that our government is slowly catching up with the Open Source community. This is good, but for whom? America’s painfully slow legislation process is an impediment to our growth. Although America is a republic, many Americans are still ignorant of new and upcoming policies despite mass media’s efforts. Closed-source legislation results in bad legislation. The open-sourcing of government software is a precursor to the open-sourcing of our legislation process. Let us apply the principle of Git-style Version Control to our laws. Let the people bring their ideas to the table–something akin to a Git pull request. Leveraging the intelligence and experience of all Americans together results in a more efficient government. Let Open Source give a new meaning to Democracy.

Clay Shirky’s ideas on the subject.