---
url: 'https://dri.es/public-money-public-code'
title: 'Public money, public code'
author:
  name: 'Dries Buytaert'
  url: 'https://dri.es/about'
date: '2020-09-17T06:21:07-04:00'
license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'
type: blog
tags:
  - 'Open Source'
  - Government
published: true
featured: true
id: 5071
---

# Public money, public code

Should software funded with tax dollars be Open Source? I believe so. Maybe there are exceptions, but the default should be *"developed with public money, make it public code"*.

Some governments have increasingly embraced Open Source software. For example, Italy created a new law to [enforce the evaluation and use of Open Source in government](https://medium.com/team-per-la-trasformazione-digitale/open-source-guidelines-for-acquisition-reuse-software-in-italian-public-administration-d6d5997d3e51). And, the Australian government has [been promoting the idea of public code for several years](https://dri.es/building-software-to-be-proud-of).

Why do you think many governments have not adopted the idea of "public money, public code"?
