Robin2go

18F: We are dedicated to the American public and we're not done yet For over 11 years, 18F has been proudly serving the American people to make government technology work better. We are non-partisan civil servants. 18F has worked on hundreds of projects, all designed ...

So, so, SO many of my friends woke up yesterday to find themselves unemployed — simply because they were very good at their job and passionate about their work. They are also fearless. 18f.org

I once saved an agency around $2 million on a modernization project because of a bad contract they had, it took me several phone calls and less than a week.

You need alignment and air cover to pull stuff like this off, but the game changing is stuff we weren't even allowed to promote or talk about

“We’re still absorbing what has happened. We’re wrestling with what it will mean for ourselves and our families, as well as the impact on our partners and the American people.

“But we came to the government to fix things. And we’re not done with this work yet.“ — @team18f.bsky.social, 18f.org

We remained committed throughout the Presidential Transition to delivering better government services through technology and stood ready to partner with incoming officials. Each of us left senior private sector technology positions to pursue nonpartisan public service. We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations. However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments at the United States DOGE Service. We completed 15-minute interviews with individuals wearing White House visitor badges. Interviewers refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability. This process created significant security risks. One-third of our USDS colleagues were indiscriminately terminated by an anonymous email. These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, healthcare, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services. Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and Americans’ data less safe. DOGE representatives began integrating us into their efforts. DOGE’s actions—firing technical experts, mishandling sensitive data, and breaking critical systems—contradict their stated mission of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”. These actions are not compatible with the mission we joined the United States Digital Service to carry out: to deliver better services to the American people through technology and design. We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services. We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.

Here are the key parts of a letter from US Digital Service employees who resigned
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/skilled-te...

DOGE by contrast appears to be a temporary wrecking crew paving the way for aligned Silicon Valley vendors to fill the gap. Removing 18F will make that easier. Dan Tangherlini, the former GSA Administrator who oversaw 18F posted that: 18F was popular among the agencies; annoying to the contracting community; and frightening to the contractors and consultants who could charge unsuspecting agencies whatever they could get away with. Small, but mighty, 18F was the OG DOGE, but with a mission to create actual efficiency, and more importantly, effectiveness. These were smart, technical, caring, dedicated, and patriotic public servants. Their dismissal with a late-night email demonstrates that this administration either doesn’t know how to effectively enhance government efficiency, or really doesn’t care. We built it from scratch before. We will just have to do it again.

Gutting 18F will make pave the way for private contractors, many aligned with Musk, to fill the gap that DOGE has created, but at a much inflated cost.
From Dan Tangherlini, former GSA Administrator who oversaw 18F.

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people:
18f.org

The administration got rid of 18F under the cover of night. People who own skyscrapers are afraid of 100 people who make websites.

Not because of the latest tech fad, but because we proved the government can be fixed, the government can be made better and the government can work for the people.

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F.

18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it.

We made this website to tell our story:
18f.org

I’ve got a lot of friends still at 18F, struggling with everything that’s happening outside their control to themselves and others. I’m afraid many of us may need to make our own lists soon. Thanks for sharing this, Ethan. Best of luck.

This might be my favorite.

Thank the universe for smart people.

Funny. I wondered the same thing.

The FBI’s core values, including integrity, compassion, fairness, and allegiance to the Constitution - and oh, yeah, diversity, are being painted over at the FBI Academy. Source: NYT.

The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...

This.

OH: it’s just turtles all the way down. And by turtles, I mean nightmares.

OH: I’m afraid Beverly’s pompon will get soggy.

As a knitter, I happen to know a thing or two about wool. But I appreciate your helpfulness. It’s been too long.

Going away for a four day birthday weekend and I packed no laptop, iPad or anything electronic other than my phone. I feel very naked right now. 😬

OH: I’m posting all these selfies you took on my phone when I wasn’t looking.

How do you spell *miscreant*?

Be right there.

What did I do on my first day of winter break? Cleaned my neglected home, did 4 loads of laundry, flipped my king mattress (alone), stripped and remade it with fresh new bedding, and then had a cup of tea and watched Dr Who. It was almost as if I remembered how to have a life again.

Wow. Just… wow. A picture worth a 1,000 words. On all the signs.

There’s a lot in that post to unpack, E. Like, whoa. Sending you love and compassion. Even a giggle when you need something a bit lighter. 🧡

If you’ve ever seen my talks that mention Anne’s Alphabet of Accessibility, you know her approach to the world is something special. I highly recommend taking her up on project work.

A *very* full refrigerator with food crammed everywhere.

We call this “holiday Tetris”. Hope y’all are enjoying the extended holiday weekend.

Oooh, deep cut. A rose by any other name, however…

😏

Hard to say if it was industry word of mouth or conference circuit. We also have a number of friends in common. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

😂🥁

OH: Was not expecting “How hard it was to keep the robots on track”