White House Offers 'We The People' Petition App Under Open Source License

Loek Essers | Computerworld | August 24, 2012

The source code of "We The People," the online system that can be used by citizens to submit their petitions to the White House, is being offered as open source software, an official said on Thursday.

"Now anybody, from other countries to the smallest organizations to civic hackers can take this code and put to their own use," wrote Macon Philips, director of digital strategy in a post on the White House blog. It is the first big code release by his team, he added.

We The People is based on the Drupal open source content management platform, and was used to file petitions against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two controversial bills that prompted widespread online protests because of their potential to censor 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.