Software Heritage: Why and How We Collect, Preserve and Share All the Software Source Code

Software is at the heart of our digital society. It powers our industries, fuels innovation, mediates access to all digital information, is a pillar of modern scientific research, and has enabled the emergence of new forms of social and political organizations—“code is law”, as Lessig said [2]. The source code of this software is a unique form of knowledge: it is designed to be read by humans (the developers), and yet it is ready to be translated into an executable form for a machine. As Len Shustek puts it, “Source code provides a view into the mind of the designer” [3]. Software source code is precious, and embodies a growing part of our scientific, technical and organisational knowledge. Software Heritage is an open, non-profit initiative whose mission is to ensure that this precious body of knowledge will be preserved over time and made available to all.We do this for multiple reasons. To preserve the scientific and technological knowledge embedded in software source code, that is a precious part of our heritage. To allow better software development and reuse for society and industry, by building the largest and open software knowledge database, enabling the development of a broad range of value added applications.