What is open-source

1.1.1 Open-source is the practice of publishing the source code of a software project so that anyone can read, modify, re-use, and improve that software.
1.1.2 With open-source we can adapt and improve the best technology the world has to offer and bring it to the NHS.
1.1.3 Opening our work, means that we can also give it back to the people who fund it, the public. Allowing them to better understand and trust the work we do on their behalf.
The Department of Health & Social Care has made a commitment to make all new NHS code open-source and published under open licences which define the legal terms for free access and reuse.

Use of open-source in the NHS

2.1.1 Programmers across the NHS frequently use existing open source packages and modules in their work, especially for routine data analysis or processing, or for mobile development (as part of the NHS App, for instance).

2.2.1 The ‘cambrian explosion’ visualisation captures the rise in open-source software in recent years.

2.2.2 From the first open-source repo published by NHS England in 2014, to over 1,200 today.
2.2.3 Python, R, and webdev tools (HTML, css, Ruby, PHP) are the most popular languages.

Refs: NHS Python Community. Open-Source Health Statistics. https://nhs-pycom.net/open-source-health-statistics

3.1.1 As set out in the NHS Digital Service Manual, public services are built with public money–so unless there’s a good reason not to (security for example), all code produced by the NHS should be made publicly available.
3.1.2 Any open code can be reused by our developers to reduce costs, avoid duplication of effort, generally increase staff efficiency, make system changes more quickly and pursue the best approaches, not just those locally available.
3.1.3 Others can learn from your experiences
3.1.4 Others find uses for your code which you had not found
3.1.5 Publishing under open licences also drives up the quality of services we buy and promotes a more varied ecosystem of products and providers.
3.1.6 Open source code can save teams duplicating effort and help them build better services faster.
3.1.7 Publishing source code under an open licence means that you're less likely to get locked in to working with a single supplier.
3.1.8 Not a black box. We can examine the code to make sure it's not doing anything they don't want it to do, and they can change parts of it they don't like
3.1.9 Open source software often inspires a community of users and developers to form around it. These communities are the people who produce, test, use, promote, and ultimately affect the software they love.

4.1.1 Open-source projects have no support
4.1.2 Open-source is free
- There may be support and maintenance costs
4.1.3 Open-source is developed by amateurs
- There are commercial open-source software available and open-source companies that are venture funded (elastic for example).
- Many proprietary platforms (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) have developed open-source 'ecosystems' where you can interact with these platforms using open-source code.
- Companies developing specialised software for the NHS may opt to use open-source code so that our own engineers can use/maintain these tools going forward.
4.1.4 Open-source means using a Linux operating system