18F was just eliminated.
You may not have heard of them, but if you live in the United States, you’ve certainly benefitted from their work. They were a part of the General Services Administration and partnered with different government organizations to help with technology modernization efforts. They focused on user-centered design, agile development, and sharing via open source so other government orgs (like states) could benefit from their work.
In 2023, they launched free tax filing with the IRS which was so successful that New York partnered with them to launch something similar last year. They were working on improving access to weather data with NOAA and making it easier to get a passport with the Department of State.
This was the team that helped built the U.S. Web Design System, a system of tools and resources that makes it easy to build mobile-friendly sites that are accessible for everyone, including people with disabilities. In fact, I’m leading a team that will soon launch a similar system for New York State, and we took a lot of good from the USWDS.
I could go on and on about the great work they’ve done, but if you’re like me and want government to work more efficiently for the good of the people it serves — that was a team you’d want to keep around.
I’m so proud to be part of a state government team that invests in accessibility and improving the digital experiences of its residents. This week, Governor Hochul announced an initiative to welcome those laid-off federal workers to our New York State workforce — and I couldn’t be more excited about the people we’ll be meeting with in the coming days. Please reach out.
“It turns out that if the tech people you bring in spend time understanding the problem instead of trying to apply predetermined solutions, government actually buys less tech, not more, and at a lower cost, while delivering better outcomes.” ―Jennifer Pahlka, Recoding America
You can read 18F’s letter to the American people, follow their continued work on BlueSky, or explore their 1200+ open-source repositories on GitHub.
