(note: this is musing on my part, not necessarily what is being thought by those in charge) So, there's a lot of interesting signalling at work, right? Clearly

(note: this is musing on my part, not necessarily what is being thought by those in charge) So, there's a lot of interesting signalling at work, right? Clearly, if you want to show "Hey, we're serious about improving the tech issues in government--so much so that we're willing to try new ideas and get out of our comfort zone" the simplest way of doing that (far simpler than, say, granting actual authority, spending money, or whatever else) is to "allow" these coders in in their native dress. It gives you PR opportunities which might help lure in more developers and let the public think "oh golly they've got smart-looking folks working for them...they must be serious!". It lets you easily identify who is probably part of the tech branch, because they dress differently than everyone else given the opportunity. This additionally helps create a bit of minor strife between them and everyone else: you have a way of constantly reminding other departments that you can embed people in them they wouldn't otherwise like and make it stick, that you can grant leniency to those you favor, and that you can deny assistance that they (internally) know that they need by withholding the wiz kids (who, again, are easy to spot). Additionally, you end up with a mild antagonism which helps scapegoat the nerds if they don't work out: "Oh, yeah, well, they just didn't fit in--didn't even bother to dress like us. Sorry about that, we'll bring back the old contractors...they knew how be respectful (read: behave)". ~ I'm generally loathe to dive into such power-politics and scheming, but if there's one place it may actually be happening, it's DC.