18F Blog

I kind of love this idea, take the skills of 18F https://18f.gsa.gov/ and put them into making the ultimate dating site! An awesome application of data science. Let's take it further -- Government-funded matchmakers! They can hire all the Korean and Indian aunties that are already doing this for free.

> It's very unfortunate that the US government at the same time promotes a particular standard, but does not provide a service matching that standard and seems to currently have no plans to do so id.gov could be a great project for the US Digital Service [4] and 18F [5] who are the ones that delivered login.gov [6]. [4]: https://www.usds.gov/ [5]: https://18f.gsa.gov/ [6]: https://digital.gov/2017/08/28/government-launches-login-gov-to-simpli…

Seems like a chicken-egg problem. Having been a resident of CA for nearly two years, I remain amazed by the poor UX of pretty much every online system operated by the government. FTB, BART, DMV. They are all horrible! I am not surprised the usage is low. The systems are all painful to use. I would love if CA established a department along the lines of 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov/) or USDS (https://www.usds.gov/) to improve these systems.

100% agreed. I've always found it very ironic that governments want the best and brightest when they never pay market rates. Not only do they want the best and brightest, they want them to selflessly serve their country at the cost of financial advancement. Is it surprising that they end up getting the lower end of the crop? https://18f.gsa.gov/ was a fantastic move and exactly what we need. Unfortunately, it took a group of extremely successful private sector individuals to give up their careers temporarily in pursuit of fixing something.

> How about a new civil servant job: OSS maintainer. https://18f.gsa.gov/ EDIT: > We are transforming government from the inside out, creating cultural change by working with teams inside agencies who want to create great services for the public.

We're embedded directly in project teams at agencies. I spent five years working remotely and running a major open source project before joining the U.S. Digital Service in January. I love remote work and enjoy extolling its virtues, but very simply, we could not do this job remotely, at least not for the time being. Our friends at 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov) have a lot of people working remotely, as well as offices in SF, Chicago, and New York. The nature of their work is simply different (and just as awesome).

I think 18F is actually making some good headway on introducing modern development to government, mostly by recruiting great developers with the opportunity to show how things can be done properly. https://18f.gsa.gov/

It's awesome to see this posted - I was (one of) the original creators of code.nasa.gov when we first launched it in early 2012. I've since moved on from NASA, but the agency has kept on posting things to the site as well as on GitHub (https://github.com/nasa). So glad to see the torch continue to burn. There's a big effort within the federal government to do more around engaging citizens in using (and contributing to) free/open source software, as well as starting to develop more user-centered products and services. If you're interested in that sort of thing, check out 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov and https://github.com/18F). We'd love to hear from you.

18F - https://18f.gsa.gov - Washington, DC | ONSITE 18F builds effective, user-centric digital services focused on the interaction between government and the people and businesses it serves. We are working with HUD,EPA,and GSA to fill technical roles that will help transform how technology is delivered in the federal gov. https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/open-positions/?utm_source=hackernew… Available technical roles are: HUD * Product Lead * Technical Architect * Data Engineer EPA * Cloud Architect/Infrastructure Engineer * Technical Architect * Technical Architect-User Experience GSA * Program Manager - Feedback Analytics (open data) * Developer – Data Services (open data, analytics, javascript) technical interview and core values interview conducted by 18F, final interview with the agency. Please email [email protected] to apply and include a resume. We're also happy to see links to your GitHub account or other work samples. If you care about allocating your tech superpowers to help the environment, reduce homelessness, or increase responsiveness and transparency in government, we would love to hear from you. Remote work for the EPA and GSA may be possible for the right candidate. U.S. Citizenship is required.

18F - https://18f.gsa.gov - Washington, DC; San Francisco; Chicago; New York; Remote - Full-Time 18F is a technology consulting office inside the government, for the government. We work with agencies to build and buy digital services that meet their needs, and we educate federal employees about how to move to high-functioning, efficient, and user-centered software development techniques. We are currently hiring front end designers, visual designers, software developers, product leads, and technical account managers. You can read more about each of these roles here: https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/roles-and-teams/ Most of our team is distributed across the country in places like Chicago, New York, Raleigh, Tucson, Austin, Dayton, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, and Portland. Read more about how our work culture supports distributed teams: https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/10/15/best-practices-for-distributed-teams/ Submit an application to one of our current openings here: https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/roles-and-teams/ Please include links to your portfolio, GitHub account, and any other work samples. Let us know why you want to join 18F and how you heard about us. If you have any questions, email our Talent Team at [email protected]

Is it possible that the 18F website is no longer available? It doesn't seem to work anymore: https://18f.gsa.gov

Elon is also now claiming to have "deleted" 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov/): https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886498750052327520

This is all thanks to the GDS, which was formed in 2011 specifically to bring that kind of startup vibe to government. It's even based in Shoreditch, with the startups. A lot of alumni from GDS have gone on to consult with other governments, many of which have launched similar departments. The US equivalent is 18F, which involved collaboration with GDS. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digital-service https://18f.gsa.gov/ https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2015/01/20/gds-usds/

Looks like this is being done under contract/partnership with 18F (GSA): https://18f.gsa.gov/ > The fundamental problem that we’ve observed is that weather.gov reflects its organizational silos (Conway's Law) more than its users’ needs. A lack of overall strategy, feedback/monitoring, and tools have perpetuated this problem. Wow, my org would not have the guts to write that down in a public README!

https://18f.gsa.gov/ Searching "USDS or 18F" helped google understand what I was looking for

https://18f.gsa.gov/ Here’s essentially, what exists today. Pretty impressive people.

Yes, and what came out of that? Some of the people who rescued that project with modern software development practices went on to found Nava, a public benefit corporation, to help the government do better work: https://www.navapbc.com I also have a friend who left Google to join numerous other high performers at 18F and know for a fact that they have done good work benefiting taxpayers: https://18f.gsa.gov I believe the U.S. Digital Service is better than it once was, and while it's not all rainbows and unicorns and super efficient everywhere (no doubt there are tons of huge problems with money being wasted), I do think there is improvement, and hopefully some people reading this will go help out. I'd much rather ATTEMPT to have an efficient free-file system than not try at all.

I disagree, I think a degree of homogenization is good for information heavy websites, like government ones [1][2][3] and sites geared towards documentation. Consistency here is good because it makes things familiar and therefore means people spend less time trying to figure things out/find what they're looking for. Creativity isn't necessarily the point with sites like these. Now if you're marketing a product or showcasing something on the creative side, that's a different situation entirely and in that case I agree with you. The Bootstrap wave 10 years ago was indeed excessive. [1] https://18f.gsa.gov/ [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/project-gigabit-dorset-lot… [3] https://www.healthcare.gov/

Really happy to see this on the front page! One thing to keep in mind if you're interested in joining: the Digital Corps is for early career technologists, so if you have much experience in tech, you might want to apply to USDS (https://www.usds.gov) or 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov) instead.

The 2.0 version of healthcare.gov is actually pretty good. My bet is that it's probably using the same infrastructure and is built by the US Digital Service (https://www.usds.gov/) and/or 18F (https://18f.gsa.gov/)

Bad idea I think. It would crush the lower middle class. Gov should handle infrastructure that's shared even though at times it sucks at it. DMV on the other hand, any bidders that can privatize it? The current situation is completely unacceptable and it has been for decades. Many departments in Government need to be rethought and gutted out, starting afresh. With new stack, new databases, new infrastructure and new vision. 18F should take the lead in defining the vision from the techonology standpoint: https://18f.gsa.gov/ Edit: Not sure why people are downvoting for a silly question, no question too silly and should be open for debate. :-)

Slight correction: 18F does not require you to be in DC. They are 100% remote-first. https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/10/15/best-practices-for-distributed-teams/ Open positions: https://join.tts.gsa.gov/

Not sure where you are based, but I've considered (and interviewed with) the US Digital Service. This is going to be nonpartisan work to help the US Federal government implement new technology. When I talked to them, examples including building out web applications allowing veterans to apply for benefits more easily, and other things like that. Not exactly earth shaking, but really has the opportunity to improve the interactions between people and the government. When I interviewed, they did have limits on salaries (due to laws about what the government can pay) and were only doing 2-4 year stints. It's been a while, so not sure where things stand now. More here: https://18f.gsa.gov/ https://www.usds.gov/

The clear benefit is that it removes reliance on 3rd parties for something that has become critical infrastructure to most of the world. They would still compete with private social networks over market-share, and probably can attract top talent like 18F does [0] [0] https://18f.gsa.gov/

I disagree — as a direct result of play #7 in this playbook, multiple large-scale initiatives were launched; most notably 18F, which is like a "startup" within the federal government: https://18f.gsa.gov/ Another one that comes to mind is Coding It Forward, which has the express mission of creating government tech internships that rival FB/Google internships in terms of pay, experience, and mentorship: https://www.codingitforward.com/

It was a long ago, but here's hoping someone from 18F can chime in: https://18f.gsa.gov/

That's the sad reality. Not just on the DoD side, but from the entire federal IT workforce/teams. With the exception of: 18F https://18f.gsa.gov/ USDS https://www.usds.gov/ The motto seems to be: "Open Source is BAD! How are we going the get support?! Let's just buy a product or solution from a vendor" Even though they have people/teams who were hired as developers. I have so many horror stories, it's not even funny.

Yep, please check out: http://codeforamerica.org https://18f.gsa.gov/ https://usds.gov/

18F has really changed the game in government IT and software. https://18f.gsa.gov/ They brought in a bunch of dedicated experienced software pros who among other things rescued the federal health insurance exchange site. I think they could do a fine job with tax software.

First entity that comes to mind that might be in a position to at least get the right eyes and attention to it, if not outright resolve it would be 18F[1]; that's just a guess-though this seems right up their alley. I believe there are a couple of employees here on HN. https://18f.gsa.gov/