Let's say it's January 2017 and President Bush or Rubio or Paul or Walker is being inaugurated. Does the 'U.S. Digital Service' actually keep getting funded? If it does, do the staff actually want to stay? Will any of them be willing to work on government objectives that might not be in line with their personal politics? I'll believe this is actually what it claims it is when I see it and its staff persist through a…
Join the U.S. Digital Service
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Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
engineers don't set policy
Lessig said this once: Code is Law. http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/01/code-is-law-html See also: http://codev2.cc Granted, he was talking about how the private sector can fill in where government doesn't go. Yet even on the inside there are choices to be made and influence to be exerted.
Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.federalregister.gov is a favorite of mine in the federal government, and an inspiration (they launched with a full JSON REST API in 2010!) -- but just so it's clear, that's not an 18F project. The code for federalregister.gov can be found here: https://github.com/usnationalarchives/fr2 (Disclosure: I work for 18F.)
The Federal Register site was developed by the same people that developed Gov Pulse: http://govpulse.us/about#who Here is an article from the launch of the site: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2010/07/26/meet-the-new-f...
I think of 18F and USDS in part as pieces of an effort to make this kind of result less of an anomaly, and the kind of thing you generally expect your government to do. Cause after all, why shouldn't you?
(Disclosure: I work for 18F.)
Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#44Will work for fedgov once fedgov stops using tech to violate the people. Until then, GFYS.
Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#45Let's say it's January 2017 and President Bush or Rubio or Paul or Walker is being inaugurated. Does the 'U.S. Digital Service' actually keep getting funded? If it does, do the staff actually want to stay? Will any of them be willing to work on government objectives that might not be in line with their personal politics? I'll believe this is actually what it claims it is when I see it and its staff persist through a…
Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#46I saw Mikey Dickerson (in the video) speak to a group of ~200 people last summer about the work that he and his team did on healthcare.gov. He was at Google for nearly 8 years and left to run the recovery team for healthcare.gov. Their team is the real deal -- they saved the site in just a few months and now over 6 million people have signed up. Read the Time Magazine story for the full account. He does not seem like…
Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#47Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#48Let's say it's January 2017 and President Bush or Rubio or Paul or Walker is being inaugurated. Does the 'U.S. Digital Service' actually keep getting funded? If it does, do the staff actually want to stay? Will any of them be willing to work on government objectives that might not be in line with their personal politics? I'll believe this is actually what it claims it is when I see it and its staff persist through a…
Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service
#49I have met some of the 18F folks here in San Francisco, and I have gradually become convinced that there is a lot of substance to this effort. People, apparently including people at the highest levels, recognize that information technology has made enormous leaps in the private sector, and they are serious about helping government catch up. One of the most interesting bits to me was something said by Todd Park, a for…
The question is: Can he convince others in government that, as another post on the HN front page says right now, we should replace middle management with APIs?