GitHub stores open source code in an Arctic Vault

Last year, GitHub announced plans to store its open source code in a vault built to last 1,000 years. On July 8th, code in active public GitHub repositories as of February 2nd, 2020, was archived and included in the Arctic Code Vault. GitHub invested in the Arctic Code Vault so that open source code will survive the next millennium.

In a blog post sharing the news, GitHub’s Julia Metcalf shared that Piql (GitHub’s archive partner) wrote 21TB of repository data to 186 reels of piqlFilm to support the repository. Their initial plan was for GitHub’s team to escort the code vault from Norway to its final home in the Arctic.

Due to COVID-19, those plans had to shift —but ultimately, a pandemic couldn’t stop the project. Once the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard re-opened its borders, the Piql team delivered the vault to its resting place. GitHub contributors with code in the Vault now have badges on their profiles:

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(Lauren Maffeo, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Linux Foundation launches new COVID-19 open source initiative

When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted last winter, several open source projects tried to make sense of it. Most projects thus far have been one-offs; now, the Linux Foundation aims to unite them.

#github #arctic vault #npm.