Working in the open

Two core tenets of 18F’s culture were:

1. We work for the American people.
2. They have a right to know how their tax dollars are being used.

“Transparency” wasn’t just a buzzword thrown around because we were government employees — it was embedded in every element of our work.

Developing in the open

Whenever we developed new projects, our default position was to use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and to make the code publicly accessible so that anyone could see exactly what we were doing and how.

FOSS is software that does not charge users a purchase or licensing fee for modifying or redistributing the source code. So more than simple transparency, it allows anyone to review, contribute to, or even build on the work that we did. It wasn’t uncommon for project teams to receive a comment on their code repo from a member of the public with a small update or suggestion for how to tackle a specific issue. A recent favorite was a fix to a minor problem on a prototype site, offered by a high school student who had simply seen the work we were doing and wanted to participate.

By coding in FOSS, we also added to a larger collection of code that cities, states, businesses, and individuals can also use. This makes it easier and more affordable for others to take on similar projects; instead of starting from scratch, they can begin with the framework we created. Other public sector agencies are able to use 18F’s work to accelerate their own IT initiatives, saving them — and ultimately taxpayers —​​​​​​​ both time and money by being able to use code that was already built. It also allows the private sector to build off of and create new businesses around code developed at 18F.

Talking about our work

Knowing that not everyone is going to take the time to comb through code repos, 18F also kept the public up to date on our projects through our blog. The stories we shared there covered not only the projects themselves, but how we dealt with different challenges, and what we learned along the way. Our hope was that others working in civic tech would benefit from our lessons learned and take that knowledge into their own work. For the same reason, we created a series of guides for organizations looking to tackle challenges like making their sites accessible, reducing risks, and prioritizing user experience.

When 18F was eliminated, GSA took down our blog, guides, and the entire 18F site. But we created those resources for the public, and as we pledged on March 1, we’re determined to keep them available for as long as we can. Since the code for the site, just like our projects, had been public, we were able to quickly get these resources back online. You can still find the guides if you need them.

Transparency in culture

Outside of project work, we were no less open in our communication. As a fully remote organization, we used Slack heavily for everything from planning work, to sharing hard-won knowledge, to “water cooler conversation.” There was no concern about it being a channel that the public could make a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to access —​​​​​​​ we worked with the expectation of everything being public. Our regular all-hands meetings were always recorded, and we even instituted a tradition called the “FOIA wave.” Everyone waved to the camera as one of us announced: ​

“We work in the open, and that includes this biweekly staff meeting. We have no fear of the press here, and we welcome all viewers, inside and out of the government. So, hello from [Month Day, Year], future viewer! We knew you might be watching and we’re glad you’re here!”