81–90 of 107 posts
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So I'm a software engineer in SF who would love to work on projects like you mentioned. Where do I look and what do I look for?
Also check out adhocteam.us. I don't work there, but they're doing important work for HHS and VA.
I met some of the former Googlers working for the USDS. They seemed to be many pre-IPO SREs who decided that improving government was more important than being an LP at a VC fund. They were motivated by getting tens of millions of people healthcare, and along the way they encountered huge challenges - like figuring out how to reconcile VA and Pentagon records. Their passion was inspiring, and the work they do affects…
"Amey said he’s not as concerned about programmers moving over – and quite a few data engineers who worked on Obama’s re-election campaign have ended up in White House jobs – but top level executives changing jobs can raise “red flags.”"
Matt Cutts, who was/is a semipublic Google employee wrote on Quora today about his work at USDS. https://www.quora.com/session/Matt-Cutts/1 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Matt_Cutts
It is crazy to me that Googlers no longer even "revolve the door" to shift back and forth to working for the government. Matt Cutts is merely 'on leave'. Similarly, Eric Schmidt is on a panel at the DoD while simultaneously still in his position at Google. It's impossible for someone to make the best decisions for American citizens while they're simultaneously employed by a giant international corporation which is ev…
The "Google Transparency Project" [1] seems like a deliberately misleading name. They're not at all associated with Google yet they're going as far as using Google's logo in their logo. I wonder how legal that is, and if Google's comms team is aware of them. [1] http://googletransparencyproject.org/
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The problem with gov is that everything is slow has hell / old tech on top of corporate contracts with the like of Oracle / SAP. I don't expect to improve things there because of all thoses problems + layers of bureaucracy.
I would imagine that silo'ing all these projects in outsourced contracts and agencies really exacerbates this whole mess. It would be far better to centralize the IT infrastructure of the federal government, perhaps even into its own agency. For compliance, cross-integration, security, and just efficiency, doing it in house would make far more sense. I've seen the distributed approach done at a university and it was…
I think we need maybe either a tech branch or sub-branches per branch of government. Contracting is great and all but we need consistent development not one time fixes. I'm sick of hearing about how our government got hacked here or there every now and then.
I met some of the former Googlers working for the USDS. They seemed to be many pre-IPO SREs who decided that improving government was more important than being an LP at a VC fund. They were motivated by getting tens of millions of people healthcare, and along the way they encountered huge challenges - like figuring out how to reconcile VA and Pentagon records. Their passion was inspiring, and the work they do affects…
TFA mentions ex-Googlers in the FCC, the FTC and the DOD, which are different branches of government from the USDS. TFA also says "there have been at least 15 moves between Google and its lobbying firms and those commissions." The "lobbying firms" probably had people doing less, um, technical things. "Amey said he’s not as concerned about programmers moving over – and quite a few data engineers who worked on Obama’s…
FWIW: Some of the folks they are counting are interns, AFAICT.
Otherwise, i have trouble seeing what the hullaboo is about.
For example, Matthew Bye (Disclaimer: i've worked closely with Matthew for years) is someone they claim went from the FTC to Google.
He got a job at the FTC out of law school for a few years. Then he went to Wilson Sonshini for 3 years. Then he went to Google, where's he's been 7 years (started regular counsel, now a director).
Not sure what is supposed to be wrong with this.
Moving between private law firms and corp counsel is common, people trade off "partner track millions with crazy hours" for "sane hours and reasonable pay". Moving between government and private law firms is common too (note: there are specific legal ethics rules that cover this in both directions. I make no claim they are perfect, but they do exist!). People often start out idealistic, or in government, because they have a ton of jobs. Especially in a tough legal market, it's a good place to be. They get tired of the politics or whatever, and go elsewhere. Some to private firms, some to corp counsel.
If you want a more mundane example: Eric Hysen is listed in the data. I hired him (first as an intern, then as a regular employee) and he worked for me until I left the DC office. He left mainly because he specifically wanted to help government get better, and USDS was a very hard thing to turn down in that regard.
Again, don't see what is wrong with that.
Staring at the actual US data, i'm also not sure who the "lobbying firms" are supposed to be.
Because the data doesn't list any[1] So either they are incorrectly marking those folks as "Google" (they aren't. The lobbying firms are not exclusive to Google in any way, shape or form. It also doesn't even claim the folks who went from the lobbying firm ever handled google as a client), or it's not in the data they give.
The data also doesn't say when they left google vs when they joined government. If you click the linked in links, there are often multi-year gaps here where they worked for others.
[1] Edit: Oooh, finally found one person they list from a "Google lobbying firm" : http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/227736-obama-hi...
Not sure what that has to do with Google in any way (here's the linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marty-paone-90853718)
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So I'm a software engineer in SF who would love to work on projects like you mentioned. Where do I look and what do I look for?
Binti makes software that is transforming child welfare services administration. We work together in SF and are growing rapidly. Info in profile.
Look, se got a shill, with the top comment...
You can't cast aspersions like that on users here, especially not in response to such an obviously substantive contribution.