andrefrancisco
Joined 11 years ago
Karma
168
Submissions
30
Member since
May 26
On the outreach team at 18F. Previously with the Project on Government Oversight.
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Comment · 9 years ago
The 18F email is still the best place to go. I'm not on the login.gov team, but I can forward the link to them.
Comment · 9 years ago
login.gov is currently live on this app from the Customs and Border Patrol https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cbp-jobs/id1210368989?mt=8
We're working with other agencies interested in the platform and will announce them as they go live.
*I work for 18F
Comment · 9 years ago
Our repos can be a lot to wade through. You can see examples of our specific projects here https://18f.gsa.gov/what-we-deliver/ (and each project links to the right repos if you want to see the code/docs)
*I work for 18F
Comment · 9 years ago
They are codes for FOIA exemptions. http://www.foiadvocates.com/exemptions.html
Comment · 9 years ago
That's why all of our work is open source. Agencies are free to reuse work we perform for other partners. Often, agencies will still need help implementing it for their specific needs, but we don't charge for the work we've already done. For instance, we've helped a couple agencies get regulations on the eRegulations platform https://eregs.github.io/ and many are using the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards to speed up development https://standards.usa.gov/.
Comment · 9 years ago
It’s less about unions and more about classifications of employees. Most federal employees are either “career” or “political” positions. Political positions are typically replaced by each new administration, while career employees stay, regardless of union status.
*I’m a federal employee.
Comment · 9 years ago
Accounting for how the government spends money is actually a very difficult problem, but 18F is also working on that. We're helping the Treasury Department implement the DATA Act, which will give the public and government a much better way to track how federal money is spent. https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/06/09/data-act-data-act-explainer/
But yes, agencies have some discretion in how they spend their budgets. Agencies are often mandated to operate a service, but are able to spend money by hiring 18F or private vendors to improve how they deliver that service.
Comment · 9 years ago
Certainly. Lots of agencies have to process forms submitted by the public, and when people have trouble filling out forms it makes processing them much more difficult. We've been able to show that better UX leads to better quality information. Like with our work with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/09/08/reimagining-the-immigration-p...
Comment · 9 years ago
Fortunately, 18F isn't funded by Congress. Agencies pay us for our services out of their own budgets. As long as we keep delivering good work, our funding is secure.
*I'm an 18F employee.
Comment · 10 years ago
18F came out of the Presidential Innovation Fellowship (pif.gov) when some fellows wanted to stick around and continue their public service. So they created 18F as a more permanent home that could house larger projects and hire people for longer tours of duty. It's a sister office to the U.S. Digital Service (which is in the White House) but it's primarily a GSA initiative.
There aren't specific laws involved. We aren't funded by Congress, but instead by an investment from GSA and fees from our partner agencies.
Here's one of the larger stories about the digital services movement in the U.S., including the U.S. Digital Service and 18F. https://www.fastcompany.com/3046756/obama-and-his-geeks
We've taken heavy influence from the GDS team in the UK, and Estonia is also a leader in digital government. https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/06/17/what-estonia-can-teach-us-abo...
Comment · 10 years ago
Hello! Happy to answer any questions you have about 18F. The basics: we're an office of federal employees inside the General Services Administration that helps other federal agencies improve how they build, buy, and share technology. Other agencies have to pay us for our work, so we operate in a similar way to a private business. You can see a summary of the types of things we ship (with examples) here https://18f.gsa.gov/what-we-deliver/. More info about the micro-purchase platform here https://18f.gsa.gov/tags/micro-purchase-platforms/
*I'm an 18F employee.
Comment · 10 years ago
TSA paid $47,000 for the app, not millions. $47,000 may still be too much, but it's not millions. http://www.zdnet.com/article/tsa-contracted-ibm-47k-for-ipad...
Comment · 10 years ago
18F | Full-time | ONSITE (DC, SF, NYC, CHICAGO) and REMOTE
18F is a technology consulting office inside the government, for the government (i.e. we are all federal employees!). We work with federal agencies to build and buy digital services that meet their needs, and we educate our fellow federal employees about how to move to high-functioning, efficient, and user-centered software development techniques.
You can see some examples of our work here: https://pages.18f.gov/intake/past-work/
Open positions: Front End Designer User Experience Designer Visual Designer Site Reliability Engineer Director of Chapters Director of Custom Partner Solutions Technical Account Manager - cloud.gov Technical Account Manager - Identity Program
We have offices in D.C., Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco, but much of our team is distributed across the country in places like Raleigh, Tucson, Austin, Dayton, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, and Portland. Read more about how our work culture supports distributed teams: https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/10/15/best-practices-for-distribute...
Learn more about working for the government and submit an application to one of our current openings at https://join.18f.gov.
Please include links to your portfolio, GitHub account, and any other work samples. Let us know why you want to join 18F and how you heard about us. If you have any questions, email our Talent Team at [email protected]
Comment · 10 years ago
Thanks! Our Talent Team has been hard at work on that. If there's any info missing from https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/index.html, please feel free to file an issue and we'll try to get it resolved. https://github.com/18F/joining-18f/issues
Comment · 10 years ago
That's right. There's no set grade or step for engineers, but most of our senior engineers start at a 15. Your grade and step (and therefore your pay) are determined by previous experience and previous pay.