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Curate the best thinking available
on November 30, 2016
The Federal Source Code Policy, which was signed this year, requires federal agencies to inventory their custom software and make the inventory available for consumption and display by code.gov (among other things). The most pressing work in building code.gov was defining a software metadata schema — a way for agencies to format the details of the software they’ve built.
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Building better by building together with the Federal Election Commission
on June 7, 2016
How do you work iteratively and in the open in government? How do you transform an agency’s digital presence with agile and user-centered design? We’ve learned a lot about this as we’ve worked alongside our partners at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on beta.fec.gov, and we want to share some of those lessons here.
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How 18F handles information security and third party applications
on May 13, 2016
Today the General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General (an independent part of our agency, entrusted with carefully inspecting agency operations) published a report on a mistake made in the configuration of Slack, an online chat tool we use. We discovered and remedied this issue a couple of months ago. We did a full investigation and to our knowledge no sensitive information was shared inappropriately.
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An open source government is a faster, more efficient government
on December 9, 2015
Regulation 479 is the first Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulation on the eRegulations platform. This collaboration is an excellent example of how open source development helps 18F deliver valuable services to our clients and the American public.
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18F’s best practices for making distributed teams work
on October 15, 2015
18F employees live all over the country, which means it's normal for the members of a project team to be spread across multiple cities. Because our teams are distributed, we've developed certain strategies for working well as a collaborative operation.
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Pair programming: Why two heads are better than one
on May 4, 2015
At 18F, we frequently use pair programming, a technique where two developers work together on one screen. We asked two developers at 18F how they pair program and why they find it useful.
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The intersection of art and technology
on April 28, 2015
Earlier this month, I went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for the first time. I was there to see a special exhibit featuring the pop singer Bjӧrk, who is currently presenting a retrospective of her life’s work as a musician, artist and technologist. The retrospective spans back from her early beginnings as a childhood folk singer in Iceland all the way through to her most current album release.
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How to protosketch
on March 13, 2015
If you are a leading a project, ask for a protosketch. If you are a developer, learn to protosketch. Create imagination-sparking moments, in the meeting.
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How to use GitHub and the terminal: a guide
on March 3, 2015
At 18F we hire people from many different backgrounds and each new employee brings a different level of comfort with the specific tools we use on our various projects. The team that runs the 18F website recently started writing down the tools and processes that we use to update the blog and the code that runs the site. We're sharing that with you today.
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Sketching with code: protosketching
on January 6, 2015
Meetings are boring. Prototypes are cool. Use the meeting to build the prototype. We call building a prototype in three hours or less "protosketching."
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