This document discusses civic hacking and open source contributions to government projects. It encourages people to get involved by starting small with MVPs, contributing to projects like 18F and Code for America, and finding issues on sites like Civic Tech Issue Finder. It provides examples of 18F projects and emphasizes that contributions don't have to be code - there are many ways to contribute. The overall message is that civic hacking is a way to make an impact and build experience through open source work on projects that improve government services.

1. Civic hacking:
Build your cred while
doing good
@fureigh

2. Hi, I’m Fureigh!
@fureigh

3. 18F is a digital consultancy
for the U.S. government,
inside the U.S. government.
WHAT?
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4. Just start.
MVP.
Learn and iterate.
Delivery is
the strategy.

5. 180+ people
45% DC
55% everywhere else

6. Making an impact
while building your
open source portfolio
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7. Why contribute to
open source?
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8. ● Share your work and express yourself.
● Develop new skills.
● Build community, learn from others.
● Build your portfolio.
● Some of us just like to be helpful.
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9. And why civic tech?
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10. IMPACT
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11. @fureigh

12. @fureigh

13. @fureigh

14. @fureigh

15. community-minded
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16. You are uniquely
qualified.
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17. Okay, but also...
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18. @fureigh

19. @fureigh

20. Open source is your
friend
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21. There’s a
world out there
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22. This is 18F!

23. We are 18F!

24. We are 18F!

25. And many cities and
states.
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26. There’s also
Code for America.
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27. ex: Adopt-a-Hydrant
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28. So how do you find
these people?
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29. @fureigh

30. Meetups (find one or
start one)
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34. Civic Tech Issue
Finder
codeforamerica.org/geeks/civicissues
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35. @fureigh

36. @fureigh

37. @fureigh

38. @fureigh

39. I can haz issue?
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41. @fureigh

42. Code contributions
are not the only
contributions.
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45. Back to finding
issues.
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47. Cloud.gov
Analytics.USA.gov
College Scorecard
Every Kid in a Park
Identity Management
beta.FEC.gov + FEC’s first API
Some 18F projects

48. So many technical
options!

49. The U.S. Web
Design
Standards
PART ZERO

50. We're designing for
320 million people
The population of the
United States

51. This is Joanne.

54. 1/ But wait —
there’s more
PART ONE

55. 1 2 3
$86 billion
is spent a year on federal
IT projects
94%
of federal IT projects are
over budget and behind
schedule
Just to show how this scales...
Why this matters
40%
of them never see the
light of day — they’re
scrapped or abandoned

56. 2/ Why it’s like
this
PART TWO

57. Buying IT is not the same as
buying pencils and tanks.
Our work happens in silos.
Bureaucracy over human needs.
Forced to comply with outdated regulations.

58. It became clear that if we wanted to
help Joanne, we had to help the
people making these digital services.

59. 1 2 3
The question in front of us became:
Is it possible to create a
shared set of tools to
provide consistent,
effective, and easy-to-use
government websites?
Could we build easy-to-
use tools that serve the
public’s need?
We think this is possible.

60. Here are the principles that guided us:
Flexible: Create a design
system for wide use across
agencies and brands
Accessible: They must work
for everybody, regardless of
abilities
Reusable: Save time and
money – there’s no need to
reinvent the wheel
Open source: Increase
knowledge, shared
understanding, and practices
across projects

61. A consistent look and feel with common
design elements will feel familiar,
trustworthy, and secure.

65. We built the Standards to be lightweight
● Just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
● Sass preprocessor language
○ Sass add-ons (thoughtbot’s Bourbon and Neat)
● Component-based design

66. 3/ Accessibility
PART THREE

67. Accessible out of the box
● Start with HTML5 with ARIA
● Testing Section 508 features
● Developed with WCAG 2.0 AA in mind

68. 4/ In the wild
PART FOUR

76. “I like the clean format. I like that it shows
me all the things I need to fill out all at
once. I can read it fine.
Sometimes I need my reading glasses
because of the colors, but this is good
because it's got sharp contrast.”

77. Good civic design is
about access
It means that people can
get the right help, sooner,
with less stress.

79. 5/ Open source
from day one
PART FIVE

80. We <3 our contributors

82. What if I want to
work on something
else?
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83. Start your own
band.
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84. @fureigh

85. 18F.gsa.gov
join.18F.gov
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86. codeforamerica.org/geeks/civicissues
github.com/18F/web-design-standards/issues
github.com/18F
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