Government best practices

Resources

Learning open source, git, and GitHub

• GitHub guides
• try.github.com
• Git Immersion - Learn by doing
• Git Real - Free course for learning git in real-world scenarios
• Free online courses and office hours
• Howto.gov - GitHub for government
• Code for America - Github for Local Government
• The revolution will be forked
• Git Reference
• Learn Git Branching
• Pro Git E-Book
• Additional resources

Github-related government resources

• the /unitedstates project — a shared commons of data and tools for the United States. Made by the public, used by the public.
• Open source project template - A project template containing default open source files for new projects

Licensing

• tl;drLegal - Licenses summarized and explained in plain English
• Choosealicense.com
• Software licensing
• What is free software?

Formatting

• Prose - Content editor for GitHub
• Dillinger - Markdown editor
• Markdown tutorial

Open Data Resources

• ETL for America Wiki - A resource for Extract Transform Load tools, best practices, etc.

Books

1. Producing Open Source Software – Karl Fogel (Practical)
2. The Cathedral and the Bazar – Eric S. Raymond (Theoretical)
3. Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing – Andrew M St. Laurent (O’Reilly)

Suggestions? Questions?

If you are a government employee, please help improve this document or ask a question to join the discussion. A government email address and GitHub login is required to participate.

About this site

This site is collaboratively authored by a peer-group of government employees that share best practices in furtherance of open source, open data, and open government efforts. Interested in joining? Find out how.