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From this article, it remains unclear to me what 18f is doing and how it's doing it differently from any other IT shop of any other governmental body. I mean, I

by smsm42 9y ago

From this article, it remains unclear to me what 18f is doing and how it's doing it differently from any other IT shop of any other governmental body. I mean, I get that they do it in agile, modular and user-friendly fashion (did you ever see anybody declare otherwise - that they're going to develop in monolithic, lazy and user-hostile fashion? everybody knows the buzzwords) - but what specifically they do and why it is so important to keep doing whatever they do? Also, it looks like the leadership issues come from the fact that the leader(s), despite declaring themselves to be apolitical, were very much political (they just expected their policy to win so they can pose as apolitical while doing exactly what they wanted), got triggered by Trump being elected and rage-quit the job. Which is entirely within their rights, nobody is obligated to work for Trump or the govt, especially if they hate the guy, but it's not exactly a sign of problems within 18F as such.

danso 9y ago
18F is part of the General Services Administration and was ostensibly tasked to not just work on IT (for GSA, and others) but to develop and promulgate best practices across the federal agencies. A 2015 blog post about "The difference between 18F and USDS": https://ben.balter.com/2015/04/22/the-difference-between-18f-and-usds/ https://ben.balter.com/2015/04/22/the-difference-between-18f... > The [Presidential Innovation Fellows] program was a success, and soon after a group called 18F was created within the General Services Administration (GSA) not only to house the PIFs, both physically and bureaucratically, but also to continue and augment their efforts — to centralize forward-thinking technologists in government under one administrative umbrella, and to provide a vehicle for change that wasn’t tied so closely to the administration and the highly political world in which it operates on a daily basis
gowld 9y ago
The difference is that 18F builds technology the way they want, on a consulting basis to (non-tech) agencies that need tech. The old way was that non-tech agencies build/buy tech, with all the incompetence that comes from that route.
book_mentioned 9y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13432881#13433212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13432881#13433212 >Keverw: I wonder how the USDS is different than the 18F? >>Matt_Cutts: USDS and 18F serve in pretty different roles. USDS often comes in when there's a crisis or a high presidential priority, because the organization sits in the office of the President. 18F is located in the General Services Administration and is especially strong when looking at the medium- to long-term goals of an organization [continues]
gowld 9y ago
"Apolitical" never exists. What is called "apolitical" really means "supported (or better: ignored but funded) by all major power players". In the case of an Obama-backed initiative alongside the modern GOP philosophy (with "anti-Obama" has a key platform plank), "apolitical" certainly can't apply. Apolitical is for whatever VA internal paperwork management process that is run without photo-ops with the President.

by smsm42 9y ago

danso 9y ago

18F is part of the General Services Administration and was ostensibly tasked to not just work on IT (for GSA, and others) but to develop and promulgate best practices across the federal agencies. A 2015 blog post about "The difference between 18F and USDS": https://ben.balter.com/2015/04/22/the-difference-between-18f-and-usds/ https://ben.balter.com/2015/04/22/the-difference-between-18f... > The [Presidential Innovation Fellows] program was a success, and soon after a group called 18F was created within the General Services Administration (GSA) not only to house the PIFs, both physically and bureaucratically, but also to continue and augment their efforts — to centralize forward-thinking technologists in government under one administrative umbrella, and to provide a vehicle for change that wasn’t tied so closely to the administration and the highly political world in which it operates on a daily basis

gowld 9y ago

The difference is that 18F builds technology the way they want, on a consulting basis to (non-tech) agencies that need tech. The old way was that non-tech agencies build/buy tech, with all the incompetence that comes from that route.

book_mentioned 9y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13432881#13433212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13432881#13433212 >Keverw: I wonder how the USDS is different than the 18F? >>Matt_Cutts: USDS and 18F serve in pretty different roles. USDS often comes in when there's a crisis or a high presidential priority, because the organization sits in the office of the President. 18F is located in the General Services Administration and is especially strong when looking at the medium- to long-term goals of an organization [continues]

gowld 9y ago

"Apolitical" never exists. What is called "apolitical" really means "supported (or better: ignored but funded) by all major power players". In the case of an Obama-backed initiative alongside the modern GOP philosophy (with "anti-Obama" has a key platform plank), "apolitical" certainly can't apply. Apolitical is for whatever VA internal paperwork management process that is run without photo-ops with the President.