Frequently Asked Questions
Government needs to share information better, faster, and smarter. Our mission is to improve the government’s ability to share the right information, with the right people, at the right time.
The goal of Project Interoperability is to help government and non-government organizations identify a baseline of terms, tools, and techniques to connect networks and systems. We aim to be architecture-agnostic, and we are trying to normalize the way information sharing technology is developed and used.
This project is based on Project Open Data.
Help the United States Government increase our ability to share information responsibly by collaborating with us on Project Interoperability. Please suggest enhancements by editing the content here, or add tools that help anyone open data (See “How can I contribute?” below). If you have any questions about the initiative that aren’t answered in this FAQ, reach out to us.
This project is a collaborative work (“open source”). Government employees, contractors, developers, and members of the public are encouraged to improve the project by contributing. Tell us what works, what doesn’t, and help us improve the content. This can be done in two ways:
Easy
Note: You will need to create a free GitHub account if you do not already have one.
Advanced
The project as originally published constitutes a work of the United States Government and is not subject to domestic copyright protection under 17 USC § 105. Members of the public who make subsequent contributions, however, retain their original copyright.
In order to facilitate collaboration, the content of this project is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 License, and the underlying source code used to format and display that content is licensed under the MIT License.
Anyone – government employees, contractors, developers, the general public – can view and contribute to Project Interoperability.
Due to Federal privacy laws and policy requirements, participants should not post data that can be used to identify specific individuals, for example, another person’s name or address. We encourage you to check out the White House’s Digital Checklist for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for more information on PII. If contributors are willing provide their own PII via GitHub, it will be handled according to PM-ISE’s Website, Social Media, and Comment policies. You should also be aware that comments, pull requests, and any other messages received through this repository may be subject to Federal recordkeeping requirements. In addition to PM-ISE’s policies, we encourage you to check out the White House’s Project Open Data portal for additional resources and guidance.
Ultimately? You. While the Office of the PM-ISE launched and continues to oversee the project, this is a collaborative work — commonly known as “open source” — and is supported by the efforts of an entire community. See the “how to contribute” section above to learn more.
At the onset, the Office of the PM-ISE is here to provide daily oversight and support, but over time, it is our vision that contributors both inside and outside of government – via the Standards Coordinating Council – will be empowered to take on additional leadership roles.
Yes! Simply follow the “advanced” instructions above to submit a pull request.
Release cycles vary from repo to repo. See the README file within the repo where you submitted a pull request to see how often code pushes and updates are done.