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This seems so obvious, it's crazy this isn't being done everywhere.

I think the main reason why this is not done actively in Germany, is missing people with expertise. Lots of old guys from the pre-internet era taking care of the technical systems. Unfortunately, the gov is not doing much to make at least official positions attractive to young programmers. And of course, if it's done by a contractor, they do not wat to share any code with the public.

Only somewhat positive example from the recent past is the Corona warning app: https://github.com/corona-warn-app

This might be because the government is a really unattractive employer both in terms of culture and remuneration.

However I have met some truly brilliant people working for the city of Berlin. They're just limited by red tape and diffusion of responsibilities, not to mention the amount of work that needs doing.

Opening the code up to pull requests could give the city IT a free boost from motivated citizens, I think.

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