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This is cool. It looks like the end result took the pdf chapters and made them searchable and in html form, which is a big improvement. Is there more to it than

This is cool. It looks like the end result took the pdf chapters and made them searchable and in html form, which is a big improvement. Is there more to it than that that I'm missing?

dublinben 11y ago
The end result isn't the end at all, but just the beginning of a more comprehensive system. This was just a proof-of-concept to show that something like this was possible.
- DannyBee 11y ago
  So, that part has been known for years, and in fact, IMHO, part of the problem (with no offense meant) has been that many orgs provide proof of concepts to agencies or as part of sprints, etc, but in the end, the agencies really want someone who helps them maintain it forever. They want someone there to hold their hand and help make it work, forever. Not someone who shows them what the future looks like, does a little work, and then says "welp, gotta run, have fun building it!". Because then the agencies go back to their multi-million dollar consulting contracts, and end up with what they got in the first place: Someone selling them 20+ year old technology at a high price. (Sorry, i spent way too long in DC watching this kind of thing happen repeatedly)
  - wslack 11y ago
    > They want someone there to hold their hand and help make it work, forever. If "it" is part of the core work of the agency, shouldn't that agency learn "how to fish" and develop that capability?
rndmize 11y ago
Not on the technical side. But I would consider that to be almost secondary - I think the important part is demonstrating that you can do this over a span of days and have real, serious improvement; and that the outsiders (18F/GSA) work to build something with the interested organization rather than for. By comparison, I'd imagine the standard gov process is something more like: * decide something needs improvement * create spec as far as what they want (weeks) * find contractor to implement that meets all rules/reqs (weeks) * pass specs to contractor, contractor builds product (weeks) * get finished product that doesn't work very well because spec was created in a vacuum and contractor didn't discuss issues unless they were game-breaking I feel like the emphasis here is more on process improvement rather than the end result.
Animats 11y ago
Some of the PDFs were based on Microsoft Word documents, so those could be easily processed. Some of them apparently had to be OCRd. Of course, now they have two versions to be kept in sync. But that was a "non-goal", so it's not their problem.

This is cool. It looks like the end result took the pdf chapters and made them searchable and in html form, which is a big improvement. Is there more to it than that that I'm missing?

dublinben 11y ago

The end result isn't the end at all, but just the beginning of a more comprehensive system. This was just a proof-of-concept to show that something like this was possible.

DannyBee 11y ago
So, that part has been known for years, and in fact, IMHO, part of the problem (with no offense meant) has been that many orgs provide proof of concepts to agencies or as part of sprints, etc, but in the end, the agencies really want someone who helps them maintain it forever. They want someone there to hold their hand and help make it work, forever. Not someone who shows them what the future looks like, does a little work, and then says "welp, gotta run, have fun building it!". Because then the agencies go back to their multi-million dollar consulting contracts, and end up with what they got in the first place: Someone selling them 20+ year old technology at a high price. (Sorry, i spent way too long in DC watching this kind of thing happen repeatedly)
- wslack 11y ago
  > They want someone there to hold their hand and help make it work, forever. If "it" is part of the core work of the agency, shouldn't that agency learn "how to fish" and develop that capability?

rndmize 11y ago

Not on the technical side. But I would consider that to be almost secondary - I think the important part is demonstrating that you can do this over a span of days and have real, serious improvement; and that the outsiders (18F/GSA) work to build something with the interested organization rather than for. By comparison, I'd imagine the standard gov process is something more like: * decide something needs improvement * create spec as far as what they want (weeks) * find contractor to implement that meets all rules/reqs (weeks) * pass specs to contractor, contractor builds product (weeks) * get finished product that doesn't work very well because spec was created in a vacuum and contractor didn't discuss issues unless they were game-breaking I feel like the emphasis here is more on process improvement rather than the end result.

Animats 11y ago

Some of the PDFs were based on Microsoft Word documents, so those could be easily processed. Some of them apparently had to be OCRd. Of course, now they have two versions to be kept in sync. But that was a "non-goal", so it's not their problem.