Protecode, an innovative provider of open source license management systems, today announced a collaboration with the British National Health Service (NHS) and Source Code Control Limited to launch the Code4Health competition, aimed at identifying quality software projects within the NHS’s Code4Health Custodian model.
The competition on managing compliance and vulnerabilities in open source software (OSS) is intended to highlight governance and security weaknesses that should be avoided by Code4Health collaborators as they develop and contribute their software to the community. For each submitted project, a report on the quality of coding practices that simplify the adoption and clearing of the software by Code4Health will be created and a score assigned. Judging will be based on attributes including copyright, security, structure, and compliance.
“Code4Health is a programme managed by NHS to stimulate and encourage the development of new clinically led open technology solutions to deliver safe, high quality, efficient, and compassionate care,” said Peter Coates, programme head of NHS Code4Health. “We have a Custodian model to assure open source applications for this initiative, part of which is governance of the application code to minimise risks, such as security and licensing obligations. To promote the quality of open source applications being created as part of Code4Health and raise awareness of the governance in place, we are launching a challenge in partnership with Code4Health supporter Source Code Control Limited and Protecode to recognise the excellent coding practices of Code4Health supporters.”
Code Attributes Under Consideration
Each submission will be reviewed and scored based on the following attributes:
- COPYRIGHT Are there clear copyright and license markings in your code?
- SECURITY Are there known security vulnerabilities in the re-used OSS components?
- STRUCTURE Is there a clearly defined code structure separating the new re-used components in the project package?
- COMPLIANCE Is the code compliant with licensing requirements of subcomponents?
All participants will receive an individualized report and score, with the winner announced in early autumn of 2015. The competition is open to any participant that is developing open source solutions for the healthcare community.
For more information or to submit your code, visit: www.protecode.com/code4health-
