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Open source software (OSS) is software that anyone can review, modify, and distribute freely, usually with only minor restrictions such as giving credit to the creator of the work. The use of OSS is growing rapidly, due to its value in increasing firm and economy-wide productivity. Despite its widespread use, there is no standardized methodology for measuring the scope and impact of this fundamental intangible asset. This study presents a framework to measure the value of OSS using data collected from GitHub, the largest platform in the world with over 100 million developers. The data include over 7.6 million repositories where software is developed, stored, and managed. We collect information about contributors and development activity such as code changes and license detail. By adopting a cost estimation model from software engineering, we develop a methodology to generate estimates of investment in OSS that are consistent with the U.S. national accounting methods used for measuring software investment. We generate annual estimates of current and inflation-adjusted investment as well as the net stock of OSS for the 2009–2019 period. Our estimates show that the U.S. investment in 2019 was $37.8 billion with a current-cost net stock of $74.3 billion. 

Open source software (OSS) is ubiquitous, serving as specialized applications nurtured by devoted user communities, and as digital infrastructure underlying platforms used by millions of people. OSS is developed, maintained, and extended through the contribution of independent developers as well as people from businesses, universities, government research institutions, and nonprofits. Despite its prevalence, the scope and impact of OSS are not currently well-measured. Recent policies of the U.S. Federal Government promote sharing of software code developed by or for the Federal Government. While the policy to promote reusing and sharing of software created with public funding is relatively new, public funding plays an important and not fully accounted role in the creation of OSS. This paper aims to measure the scope and value of OSS development in the U.S. Federal Government. We collect data from Code.gov, the government’s platform for sharing OSS projects, and study contributions of agencies. The dataset contains 17K repositories from 21 agencies, with the majority of contributions originating from the DOE, NASA and GSA. In addition, we collect data on development activity (e.g., lines of code, contributors) of the repositories on GitHub, the largest hosting facility worldwide. Adopting a cost estimation model from software engineering, we generate estimates of investment in OSS that are consistent with the U.S. national accounting methods used for measuring software investment. Finally, we generate and analyze collaboration network resulting from cross-agency contributions to repositories and explore the centrality of agencies in the network.