This story appeared in the February Issue of VICE magazine. Click HERE to subscribe.
In 2014, the Obama administration announced that tech startups would work more closely with the government. A little bit of Silicon Valley was entering the bureaucracy of Washington, DC, and the goal of tech workers was to make sure that digital disasters like Healthcare.gov, the glitchy Obamacare website, would be a thing of the past.
One of these companies, 18F, operates like its own business within the government. Other government agencies are its clients, and they pay 18F to streamline their notoriously clunky websites—making obscure information and open-sourced data more accessible for the everyday citizen. Since its launch, the nearly 200-person group of designers, developers, and researchers has taken on projects like revamping the Federal Election Commission website and data banks, or designing college scorecards for the Department of Education.
Hillary Hartley, deputy executive director and co-founder of 18F, was tapped to help shape and launch the company after scoring the prestigious Presidential Innovation Fellowship. Here, the bicoastal leader explains the importance of digital strategy in government and how 18F will fare as Donald Trump starts his presidency.
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