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Join the U.S. Digital Service

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Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#91
Would anyone from the Government Digital Service [1] in the UK care to comment on this? GDS is a world-class operation which has many smart people using modern technology to solve real problems for UK citizens. Much (all?) of the work is open source [2].

[1] https://gds.blog.gov.uk/about/ [2] https://github.com/alphagov

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#92
post #82

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…

Are there republicans actually criticizing the the Digital Service?(ignoring healthcare.gov) I certainly have no clue why they would, as everyone needs better IT infrastructure. A project like this, run well, would be in line with republican policy objectives.

I assume the OP meant the people who are passionate about building a sign-up system for universal healthcare might not be so passionate about building a sign-up system for, I don't know, national concealed carry permits or something.

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#94
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll hate them even more: They're one reason why taxes are more complicated than they should/could be. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/04/auto...

Here in Sweden you receive a fully-filled-in tax declaration from the Tax Office. For 99% of people with normal jobs, all you have to do is confirm the declaration on their website OR by sending an SMS OR by calling a telephone number OR by using their app.

I'm guessing the US IRS wants to avoid giving tax frauds an implied list of everything they don't know. They may be worried that anybody with income not listed on their pre-filled declaration will not report it.

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#95
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll hate them even more: They're one reason why taxes are more complicated than they should/could be. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/04/auto...

Here in Sweden you receive a fully-filled-in tax declaration from the Tax Office. For 99% of people with normal jobs, all you have to do is confirm the declaration on their website OR by sending an SMS OR by calling a telephone number OR by using their app.

Ireland has a Pay As You Earn system which is usually administered by your employer. Mostly, you do nothing and the money is paid.

Every 5 years, file a P21 to check you're not due any refunds.

If you're self-employed, it's a bloody nightmare.

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#96
I worked a year on the UK government digital service, they really were trying to do things differently, it was a really great experience with real teams working in a supportive atmosphere. I think the 2 services share some DNA and If you get the opportunity to work at the USDS then you should grab it with both hands.

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#98

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…

Based on Mikey's G+ posts, it has bi-partisan support.

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#99
post #66

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…

It's possible to view everything through a partisan lens of course, but most of the work likely to be done by this agency is the kinds of things that most people would support: getting better, quicker or easier access to government information. Edit: Here's a good example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8988897

I believe it was Newt Gingrich who pushed the Thomas project, the initiative to put the text of all congressional bills online.

Re: Join the U.S. Digital Service

#100

Would anyone from the Government Digital Service [1] in the UK care to comment on this? GDS is a world-class operation which has many smart people using modern technology to solve real problems for UK citizens. Much (all?) of the work is open source [2]. [1] https://gds.blog.gov.uk/about/ [2] https://github.com/alphagov

I'm not from GDS - however they're one of our customers at ScraperWiki, and I know lots of the people there (via the digital civics NGO mySociety which we started over 10 years ago).

There's been lots of interest in GDS from the US over the years, people over there saying "why haven't we copied it yet?". As far as I can tell the US Digital Service and 18F are that copying in a good way - taking lots of the lessons from GDS and applying to the US situation.

As an example of the kind of thing, see the UK's Service Design Manual https://www.gov.uk/service-manual - there are sections for developers, designers and so on.

So basically, if you're good at tech, and want better Government websites (who doesn't!), go help them :)

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