Github To White House: Open Source Your HealthCare.gov Code And Let Us Help

Healthcare.gov has been referred to by the national press as “excruciatingly embarrassing,” “a poster child for the federal government’s technical ineptitude,” and “a mess.”

Since it launched almost three weeks ago, HealthCare.gov has stymied millions of Americans, who have struggled to log in and shop for health insurance they may be eligible for under the Affordable Care Act. In subsequent congressional hearings, federal contractors pointed the finger at each other and the government for the ongoing technical issues.

Silicon Valley’s technology entrepreneurs have described in recent interviews how they would have approached the project differently from the start.

Sustained failure is not an option at the world’s leading web companies — systems are designed to scale quickly and handle an influx of traffic. HealthCare.gov would be running smoothly, they say, had it been developed using open-source and cloud-based technologies.

“I would personally like to see the government default be open source,” said Scott Chacon, cofounder and chief information officer at Github.