Journal of Data Science

When collaborating with students, colleagues and practitioners, one soon realizes the lack of efficiency when sending around emails with multiple attachments, especially if changes are made in several types of documents (for example, text, code, PDF) and simultaneously by several collaborators. Using a version control system (VCS) can largely improve joint workflows, from file sharing, including merging changes from different collaborators, to providing access to past versions of the shared work, while allowing each collaborator to work under her/his preferred setup (for example, text editor or file manager). There exists lots of technical or specialized information and literature about VCSes online, but, as often, this is rather overwhelming for beginners. Knowing the basics well is more important than getting lost in the vast amount of possible options VCSes offer. Also, the basics are sufficient to enjoy using VCSes and to see their value in collaborative work, additional features can still be picked up along the way once necessary. We focus on such fundamentals of the centralized VCS SVN and the distributed VCS Git. We explain in simple terms how these systems can be set up and interacted with to increase efficiency in collaborative workflows.

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of patterns and trends in the open-source software (OSS) contributions by the U.S. federal government agencies. OSS is a unique category of computer software notable for its publicly accessible source code and the rights it provides for modification and distribution for any purpose. Prompted by the Federal Source Code Policy (USCIO, 2016), Code.gov was established as a platform to facilitate the sharing of custom-developed software across various federal government agencies. This study leverages data from Code.gov, which catalogs OSS projects developed and shared by government agencies, and enhances this data with detailed development and contributor information from GitHub. By adopting a cost estimation methodology that is consistent with the U.S. national accounting framework for software investment proposed in Korkmaz et al. (2024), this research provides annual estimates of investment in OSS by government agencies for the 2009–2021 period. The findings indicate a significant investment by the federal government in OSS, with the 2021 investment estimated at around $407 million. This study not only sheds light on the government’s role in fostering OSS development but also offers a valuable framework for assessing the scope and value of OSS initiatives within the public sector.