github-for-policy

How to use GitHub for collaborating on public policy (especially for open data).

Collaborative Policymaking

Content stored as Markdown, a near-plain text markup language for non-developers
Document(s) can be published using a custom HTML/CSS/JavaScript template using GitHub Pages, or displayed simply as rendered (unstyled) HTML
Encourage editing via the web interface or via prose.io

Expose process: publish pre-release revision history, have discussions in public, memorialize in-person discussions, leverage GitHub's Issues feature, and strive to maintain one class of contributors
Explicitly encourage contribution — both in your project documentation and along side the published content
License the content as appropriate, usually either Public Domain (CC0) or CC-BY
Communicate the big picture: roadmap, timelines, goals, vision, and current status
Whenever possible, open source the problem, not the solution
Provide encouragement, feedback, and gratitude with each contribution
Minimize friction through tooling
Describe requirements and how to preview changes locally
Use automated testing via Travis CI
Decentralize decision-making authority to technical and subject-matter experts as appropriate
See also: community-building best practices

Whenever possible, the agency should regularly accept/reject proposed changes and cultivate community feedback
If necessary, if a document cannot be changed, community feedback can be curated on a seperate branch from master
The community branch can be “released” (merged) on a regular release cycle in line with agency goals