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Somebody build a dashboard that simply replicates data already available on the OPM site[1]... Much efficiency! Many Savings! Wow. What a dumpster fire. 1 -

Somebody build a dashboard that simply replicates data already available on the OPM site[1]... Much efficiency! Many Savings! Wow. What a dumpster fire. 1 - Hopefully this link works. It's to an OPM report built in Cognos and publicly available... https://www.fedscope.opm.gov/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp?b_action=powerPlayService&m_encoding=UTF-8&BZ=1AAABnsT72MN42oVOsW6DQAz9mTNph0Y_wyVhYIDjUBiANLBXlFzSqsBFcB3y9xUwpFWGvidL9vN7lp2yWJdVcVRpHIzWDDqNn4DocyNI4jZU6PncQ0%7EtfIHRZiO5UKREtAWiZ2fKqvAo94ew2gdASWN6q3sLlJxNe9IDiAg87OtOgxuvDnXzVV%7E0_Ka6a2tune7tCkQMlFyXzV%7E73QWEL0Aov4dhmTLT248p68SlXMsiz5Ws0iLPw0wF%7E_Wc6DU4IzKOiJwjYwyZQEbIJjIWXnTf3IAQ6ASEYdsC_pkZ7eMpQJ8B7YBcBNIc6B3IXwR_F9gMIHey%7EwKfOXfLO3MtTyz4AbZLbJc%3D https://www.fedscope.opm.gov/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp?b_action=p...

diggan 2y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, the "OPM report" is just the headcount? The linked "Org Chart" seems to at least add wages, age groups, and years of tenure, so not exactly the same as far as I can tell?
- ipython 2y ago
  You can add those facets on the left
  - diggan 2y ago
    Right, you could manually build the same experience, granted you know how to use the tool? Sounds a bit like the stereo-typical Dropbox comment, "You could get the same with the raw data, add your own filters, setup the facets from the left side and ...." while the submission website just plainly render the data. The UX seems different enough to be more for the common person, rather than people who mangle/unmangle data for a living.
    - ipython 2y ago
      You've moved the goalposts. Your previous comment implied that the OPM data set does not include the facets for age, tenure, salary band, etc that the DOGE website presents. That's incorrect- the OPM data set includes those facets. Since you've brought up UX, check out usafacts.org (mentioned on HN a few days ago). For example, a graph of the age of the federal workforce over time: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-old-is-the-federal-workforce/ https://usafacts.org/articles/how-old-is-the-federal-workfor.... Or the federal workforce size over time: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-federal-government/ https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-f.... They also link back to the original raw OPM data sets. The point stands, the data is publicly available. DOGE isn't creating some new radical transparency for the federal government. They're not even the first to reformat the data in a UX friendly manner. AFAICT all they've done is skinned it with "dark mode" and managed to put injection vulns in a .gov website.
      - diggan 2y ago
        The initial claim was: > Somebody build a dashboard that simply replicates data already available on the OPM site To me, that indicates that the person who wrote that, thinks that website has identical use case as to the website linked in the submission. I missed that you could add facets yourself, that is true and apologies for that, but I still see the websites as serving different audiences. One is for people who know what facets are (simplification), the other is for people who just wanna get an overview quickly, the average person lets say. So sure, the data is available, just like rsync/scp/ftp is available one way or another on most computers, but the experience and presentation is still different. Please don't take this as agreement with what DOGE is doing, or that I think it's a good overall idea or whatever, I'm just commenting on that the website seems very different than the website linked in the submission.
    - ivewonyoung 2y ago
      > The UX seems different enough to be more for the common person, rather than people who mangle/unmangle data for a living Even people who do it for a living would appreciate not having to do work for no pay after a long day at work just to look at where their taxpayer dollars are going.
ethbr1 2y ago
The broader point here is -- isn't it easy to build things when you already have nice data sets that have been compiled? ... compiled by, you know, the 40% of government employees DOGE has asked agencies to report as non-essential?
programmertote 2y ago
Not disagreeing with you. But the OPM site data seems to be only for headcount, and it probably can be found by those who know how to deep dive on government sites? Having said that, I am very much worried about the direction the US is heading. I came to the US for college and eventually end up being a permanent resident. My home country, Myanmar (Burma), has been ruled by military dictatorship for decades, and I see a lot of parallels in terms of disregard for rule of law; cult of personality; silencing free speech and journalists/reporting agencies that disagree with your point of view; etc. Add musk's chaotic way of meddling with the (albeit inefficient) government machine, not looking good at all.
- ipython 2y ago
  I googled "How many people work for the federal government?" and landed here: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-federal-government/ https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-f..., which pulls the data from the same OPM data sources. I will admit, this administration is great at flooding the zone and making big splashes over trivial tasks. It's kind of like removing the muffler from your Civic, it'll sound like a sports car but it's still a Civic.
discardedrefuse 2y ago
[flagged]

diggan 2y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, the "OPM report" is just the headcount? The linked "Org Chart" seems to at least add wages, age groups, and years of tenure, so not exactly the same as far as I can tell?

ipython 2y ago
You can add those facets on the left
- diggan 2y ago
  Right, you could manually build the same experience, granted you know how to use the tool? Sounds a bit like the stereo-typical Dropbox comment, "You could get the same with the raw data, add your own filters, setup the facets from the left side and ...." while the submission website just plainly render the data. The UX seems different enough to be more for the common person, rather than people who mangle/unmangle data for a living.
  - ipython 2y ago
    You've moved the goalposts. Your previous comment implied that the OPM data set does not include the facets for age, tenure, salary band, etc that the DOGE website presents. That's incorrect- the OPM data set includes those facets. Since you've brought up UX, check out usafacts.org (mentioned on HN a few days ago). For example, a graph of the age of the federal workforce over time: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-old-is-the-federal-workforce/ https://usafacts.org/articles/how-old-is-the-federal-workfor.... Or the federal workforce size over time: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-federal-government/ https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-f.... They also link back to the original raw OPM data sets. The point stands, the data is publicly available. DOGE isn't creating some new radical transparency for the federal government. They're not even the first to reformat the data in a UX friendly manner. AFAICT all they've done is skinned it with "dark mode" and managed to put injection vulns in a .gov website.
    - diggan 2y ago
      The initial claim was: > Somebody build a dashboard that simply replicates data already available on the OPM site To me, that indicates that the person who wrote that, thinks that website has identical use case as to the website linked in the submission. I missed that you could add facets yourself, that is true and apologies for that, but I still see the websites as serving different audiences. One is for people who know what facets are (simplification), the other is for people who just wanna get an overview quickly, the average person lets say. So sure, the data is available, just like rsync/scp/ftp is available one way or another on most computers, but the experience and presentation is still different. Please don't take this as agreement with what DOGE is doing, or that I think it's a good overall idea or whatever, I'm just commenting on that the website seems very different than the website linked in the submission.
  - ivewonyoung 2y ago
    > The UX seems different enough to be more for the common person, rather than people who mangle/unmangle data for a living Even people who do it for a living would appreciate not having to do work for no pay after a long day at work just to look at where their taxpayer dollars are going.

ethbr1 2y ago

The broader point here is -- isn't it easy to build things when you already have nice data sets that have been compiled? ... compiled by, you know, the 40% of government employees DOGE has asked agencies to report as non-essential?

programmertote 2y ago

Not disagreeing with you. But the OPM site data seems to be only for headcount, and it probably can be found by those who know how to deep dive on government sites? Having said that, I am very much worried about the direction the US is heading. I came to the US for college and eventually end up being a permanent resident. My home country, Myanmar (Burma), has been ruled by military dictatorship for decades, and I see a lot of parallels in terms of disregard for rule of law; cult of personality; silencing free speech and journalists/reporting agencies that disagree with your point of view; etc. Add musk's chaotic way of meddling with the (albeit inefficient) government machine, not looking good at all.

ipython 2y ago
I googled "How many people work for the federal government?" and landed here: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-federal-government/ https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-for-the-f..., which pulls the data from the same OPM data sources. I will admit, this administration is great at flooding the zone and making big splashes over trivial tasks. It's kind of like removing the muffler from your Civic, it'll sound like a sports car but it's still a Civic.

discardedrefuse 2y ago

[flagged]