The U.S. Digital Service's official blog, with posts on government technology projects, recruiting, and staff reflections.
HN commenters link it in discussions of USDS history and its recent repurposing, citing recruiting speeches and staff accounts of working in government.
This sounds incredibly frustrating! Almost all of my USDS projects have involved moving data across agencies, including quite a few with USCIS. It's definitely one of our most common challenges, and USDS is often called into help because we are uniquely positioned to work across departments.
As you probably realized when going through the process, USCIS has historically been 98% paper [1] (I've been to the underground limestone cave where they store a lot of it), and we've been working hard to help them modernize the entire agency, including an online application for naturalization [2] and the corresponding backend processing systems.
There are a lot of reasons why it's so hard to get agencies to work together, but making it better starts with modernizing individual systems and processes, especially when we're starting with paper that, obviously, can't be transferred seamlessly. For the most part, USCIS doesn't store your entire case file digitally (yet), and even the metadata is stored in a bunch of different systems, which includes (of course) an actual mainframe. (I've seen the mainframe too; it has pretty sweet green LED strips, and not much else going for it.)
I'm actually not familiar with how USCIS triggers SSA cards, but I'm going to ask. As it happens, USCIS and SSA do interact electronically in some situations. USCIS runs the E-Verify program, which talks with SSA, as described in this dense but refreshingly public privacy document:…
Old reputations are hard to shake. This speech[1], by the first administrator of USDS, is my favorite to quote on the topic:
> Some of you, not all of you, are working right now on another app for people to share pictures of food or a social network for dogs. I am here to tell you that your country has a better use for your talents. [...]
> The Social Security Administration mails checks from a mainframe running COBOL, which might kind of be OK except that more than half of the workforce that maintains it is at or near retirement age. What happens then? The Department of Veterans Affairs has a serious backlog of disability claims. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service processes permanent resident applications and everything else on paper. If you lose your green card, it will take you 6–8 months to get a new one and in the meantime you will not be able to prove you have the right to be in the country or get a job.
> All of these are design and information processing problems and all of these are matters of life or death to millions of citizens and all of them are things you can fix if you choose to.
Think about the response to the hurricane this weekend - that's a government function, and we need talented people serving to make sure that people who lose their homes retain access to shelter.
[1]: https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/mikey-dickerson-to-sxsw-why-we-need-you-in-government-f31dab3263a0
United States Digital Service | Senior Software Engineers, Senior Site Reliability Engineers, Senior Designers, and more! | Washington, DC | ONSITE https://www.usds.gov/
The best of technology. The best of government. And we want you.
We're looking for the most tenacious designers, software engineers, product managers, and more, who are committed to untangling, rewiring and redesigning critical government services. You'll join a team of the most talented technologists from across the private sector and government. No government resume required! We work on some of the biggest issues affecting the American people there are, immigration, veterans service, students, health care, and more. We're especially looking for talented senior engineers to join us to help shift move government tech in the right direction. See our most recent Report to Congress for examples of what you could be working on:
https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2017/07/
https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/the-u-s-digital-service-is-turning-three-a6d00a71a31f
https://www.wired.com/2017/05/meet-nerds-coding-way-afghanistan-war/
Apply here:
https://www.usds.gov/join
Following a couple links:
> When I joined USDS in 2016, I came with an outsider’s perspective, technical skills, and desire to use my talents for good. I thought I would serve for just three to six months. More than four years later, at the end of this month, my service at USDS will end. When technologists join USDS, they sign up for a limited tour of duty. I am no different, and it is my time to step down. I’m so grateful to have been a part of this team. And I am enormously proud of everything our team has accomplished across two Administrations. [emphasis added]
From: https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/the-next-chapter-for-usds-2eb6955065f3
The Obama admin created the US Digital Service — i.e. the unit that “DOGE” has now reappropriated — which attracted and hired folks like Google’s Matt Cutts [0]. The USDS did not, as far as we know, try to sneak in fresh-out-of-college-grads by bypassing the normal hiring process.
[0] https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/the-next-chapter-for-usds-2eb6955065f3
There are USDS and 18F, that were initially populated with ex-Googbooksoftlix engineers. Of course, everyone with a brain left USDS after Trump was elected.
https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/youll-never-be-the-same-again-dc5b16b84ba9
https://www.fastcompany.com/40528581/obama-federal-it-fix-it-shop-18f-has-shrunk-by-more-than-half-under-trump