Latest

Demo

ca.gov

State of California UX Design and Web Development Manager Artem Khomishen gives a demo of ca.gov.

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 27, 2025

Brief

Open data

A brief-ish explainer of open data.

By: Carlos Moreno

Posted: February 21, 2025

Research

AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook

GovFresh research notes on the AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook.

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 19, 2025

Research

Declaration for the Future of the Internet

GovFresh research notes on the Declaration for the Future of the Internet.

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 11, 2025

Thought

Fork in the code

Repository bureaucracy and how the general public can help preserve government technology assets.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: February 6, 2025

Signal

DEF CON Franklin to host inaugural release of 'The Hackers' Almanack'

Analysis of policy implications from DEF CON 32 findings.

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 4, 2025

Brief

Open source AI

A brief-ish explainer of open source artificial intelligence.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: January 27, 2025

Research

Public AI

GovFresh research notes on public artificial intelligence.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 21, 2025

Research

Open Source AI Definition

GovFresh research notes on the Open Source Institute's Open Source AI Definition.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 21, 2025

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Jonathan Mostowski

Acquisition strategist, author, innovator, problem solver

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 13, 2025

Research

SOMOSA Act

GovFresh research notes on the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 12, 2025

Demo

Data.gov metrics dashboard

Data.gov Product Manager Tim Lowden demos the new metrics dashboard.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 10, 2025

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Amy Paige Kaminski

Author, catalyst, & champion for public engagement with space, science, & technology

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 8, 2025

Research

SHARE IT Act

GovFresh research notes on the SHARE IT Act.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 6, 2025

Research

U.S. Web Design System

GovFresh research notes on the U.S. Web Design System.

By: GovFresh

Posted: December 17, 2024

Thought

Government release notes

A simple way to keep public service communications open, authentic and regular.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 9, 2024

Brief

American Dynamism

A brief-ish explainer of Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 3, 2024

Paper

Open civic organizations

A deep dive on open civic organizations.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: November 27, 2024

Research

AI and the U.S. federal government

GovFresh research notes on artificial intelligence and the U.S. government.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 26, 2024

Brief

New web accessibility law

A brief-ish explainer of the new web accessibility law for state and local governments.

By: Rebecca Woodbury

Posted: November 13, 2024

Research

Open source

GovFresh research notes on open source software.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 12, 2024

Research

Open source security

GovFresh research notes on open source security.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 12, 2024

Research

Open innovation

GovFresh research notes on open innovation.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 12, 2024

Research

Open government

GovFresh research notes on open government.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 12, 2024

Research

Open data

GovFresh research notes on open data.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 12, 2024

Thought

Cybersecurity standards for government websites

We need better guidance for a more secure digital government experience.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: November 12, 2024

Research

GDPR

GovFresh research notes on General Data Protection Regulation.

By: GovFresh

Posted: November 3, 2024

Research

OSCAL

GovFresh research notes on the Open Security Controls Assessment Language.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 29, 2024

Research

Login.gov

GovFresh research notes on Login.gov.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 24, 2024

Signal

Government websites fail basic cybersecurity practices

ScanGov adds security grades, scorecards.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 22, 2024

Brief

Open source software

A brief-ish explainer of open source software.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 21, 2024

Research

cloud.gov

GovFresh research notes on cloud.gov.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 17, 2024

Research

Plain Language

GovFresh research notes on plain language.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 8, 2024

Research

Zero Trust

GovFresh research notes on Zero Trust.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 7, 2024

Research

TechFAR

GovFresh research notes on TechFAR.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 7, 2024

Research

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

GovFresh research notes on the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 7, 2024

Research

FedRAMP

GovFresh research notes on the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 7, 2024

Thought

Using AI to build a personal government technology podcast

I created podcast-like overviews of FedRAMP, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, TechFAR and Zero Trust with Google NotebookLM's deep dive feature.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 7, 2024

Research

21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act

GovFresh research notes on the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 6, 2024

Signal

Signal 2024.10.02

What's on our radar.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 2, 2024

Signal

DEF CON Franklin to hold inaugural town meeting

Getting first projects launched.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 1, 2024

Signal

U.S. government launches website standards initiative

Will help “deliver consistent, digital-first experiences for the public."

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: September 27, 2024

Signal

Signal 2024.09.03

What's on our radar.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: September 3, 2024

Signal

Signal (2024.08.02)

What's on our radar.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: August 2, 2024

Thought

Code is digital experience (and law)

Great source code meets machine-readable web industry standards and best practices and – perhaps most important to some – adheres to the code of law.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: June 12, 2024

Thought

The government URL

Anatomy of a proper government website address.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: February 27, 2024

Thought

Analyzing U.S. federal and state government website metadata

How government-managed domains conform to basic metadata practices.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: February 15, 2024

Thought

Metadata, Open Graph and government websites

Complete metadata can have a significant impact on how citizens experience government digital services.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: January 10, 2024

Thought

How government can help build better AI

Beyond policy, proactive engagement and better data management will make government a good steward and partner in responsible artificial intelligence efforts.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: November 15, 2023

Thought

Citizen DX: Government customer experience starts with data

Properly managing and delivering citizen data should be the U.S. government's first CX priority.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 30, 2023

Podcast

Civic hacking with Carlos Moreno

A citizen journalist and civic technologist shares his experiences and lessons learned civic hacking.

By: GovFresh

Posted: October 9, 2023

Podcast

Civic hacking with Steve Spiker

A pioneering civic technologist retrospects and shares his thoughts on hacking government for good.

By: GovFresh

Posted: August 28, 2023

Signal

White House wants your input on open source software security

A 'civic opportunity to help shape the government’s thinking about open-source software security.'

By: GovFresh

Posted: August 18, 2023

Thought

Civic hacking

The soul and grassroots foundation of democracy.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: August 17, 2023

Thought

Open civic organizations

How government agencies, academia, nonprofit organizations and public sector vendors can build open, participatory models of operating.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: August 2, 2023

Thought

Government README

A simple practice can help give clarity to public sector projects and services, and how those impacted can engage with them.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: July 27, 2023

Thought

Git government

True democracy – and great technology – is organic, collaborative, participatory, responsive, iterative, adaptive.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: July 12, 2023

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Ryan Wold

Public servant

By: GovFresh

Posted: April 25, 2023

Thought

Virtuous civic circle

By adopting a simple public engagement framework, we can build a more inspired government, together.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: March 4, 2023

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Jarah Meador

Director of Challenge.Gov + CitizenScience.Gov

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 1, 2023

Signal

Civic hacking USAJOBS

Re-imagining federal government job openings with the USAJOBS API.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 31, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking CDC notifiable diseases

Building a map of weekly notifiable disease cases across the United States.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 31, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking CISA cybersecurity news

Building a cybersecurity news page using the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency RSS feeds.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 30, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking FDA's National Drug Code Directory

Building a look-up of Food and Drug Administration approved medicines.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 30, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking the National Park Service

Building a national parks directory with the NPS API.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 30, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking National Geodetic Survey survey marks

Building a survey mark finder app.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 30, 2022

Signal

Retrospecting 2022

Building community, civic hacking with my son, pedigree and public interest technology.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 15, 2022

Signal

Welcome to GovFresh Signal

Subscribe to the official GovFresh newsletter.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: December 7, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Rebecca Woodbury

Local gov content strategist

By: GovFresh

Posted: December 7, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking NASA (astronomy picture of the day)

Building a space photo of the day page using NASA's astronomy picture of the day API.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: November 3, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking the Federal Register

Building an executive branch agency list using the National Archives' Federal Register API.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 31, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking .gov domains

Building a simple .gov domain search tool with CISA open data.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 29, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking Congress (part 1)

Building congressional pages with the new Library of Congress Congress.gov API.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 26, 2022

Thought

Government RSS

Every government website must have an RSS feed. This guarantees an open, universal standard for syndicating government information.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: October 18, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Victor Sauceda

CEO, founder, justice reform advocate, community leader, change agent

By: GovFresh

Posted: August 18, 2022

Thought

Pedigree and public interest technology

The community that supports digital government services should be undeniably representative of everyone.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: August 16, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Andrew Hening

Civic innovator, systems changer, homelessness ender

By: GovFresh

Posted: August 3, 2022

Signal

Why and how I built Agile Government Leadership

AGL, which has since evolved into Technologists for the Public Good, was the testing ground for an experiment in what I now call an open civic community of practice.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: July 28, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Marlena Medford

Civic tech evangelizer. Storyteller. Diversity seeker.

By: GovFresh

Posted: July 27, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Joe DiStefano

Resiliency planner, startup founder, SimCity aficionado

By: GovFresh

Posted: July 15, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Carla Briceno

CEO and co-founder, Bixal

By: GovFresh

Posted: July 5, 2022

Signal

A meta tag on USAJOBS posts could substantially increase the visibility of federal government job opportunities

One simple piece of code to the U.S. government's employment website could go a long way in increasing social media reach.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: July 1, 2022

Direct Message

Direct messaging: Angie Quirarte

Civic techie, bureaucracy hacker, dot connecter

By: GovFresh

Posted: June 21, 2022

Signal

How California gets a return on its $25 million innovation investment

Time for Alpha 2.0.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: March 21, 2022

Signal

Father-son civic hacking: Open Data Day 2022

Kickstarting USA.GovFresh, beginning with Federal Register open data.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: March 10, 2022

Signal

Government open data in 2022

Once thriving, now barely surviving. Ideas on how we can breathe more life into it.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: March 4, 2022

Signal

Time for government to stop using Medium

A publishing platform that says it's an environment open to everyone doesn't provide equal access to all.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: February 17, 2022

Signal

Civic hacking for '100% .gov'

Re-imagining the government domain name registry experience.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: January 21, 2022

Signal

Hacking the chief data officers playbook

Making it more accessible, and suggestions for the CDO Council.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: January 14, 2022

Signal

Coding a COVID-19 dashboard (with my 13 year-old son)

Adventures in father-son civic hacking.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: January 11, 2022

Podcast

How government can bring mindfulness to law enforcement

The Government We Need talks with Mindful Badge's Richard Goerling about mindful policing.

Posted: December 20, 2021

Signal

What government can learn from Olay

Olay’s Open to Change advertising campaign is something government should take note of.

By: Luke Fretwell

Posted: November 15, 2021

Signal

Public service bravery: Michael Lewis' The Premonition shows what it takes to fight a pandemic

In The Premonition, as he tends to do, Michael Lewis turns everyday people willing to tell us what we need to hear at a critical societal moment into a cast of characters we can't help but cheer on, but also leave wishing the world had more brave voices such as these.

By: GovFresh

Posted: July 6, 2021

Signal

Open security controls: NIST officially releases OSCAL 1.0.0

The National Institute of Standards and Technology officially released Open Security Controls Assessment Language 1.0.0, a federal government effort to standardize authorization packages and streamline security reviews using a common machine-readable language.

By: GovFresh

Posted: June 8, 2021

Signal

Register for the government 2021 User Experience Summit

The U.S. federal government's user experience community of practice is hosting a three-day virtual UX summit June 22-24.

By: GovFresh

Posted: June 7, 2021

Signal

Buy this book: 'A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide'

Cyd Harrell's "A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide" is the book we've always needed, but wouldn't have been possible until now thanks in no small part to the unparalleled experience she's accrued over the years working at Code for America, 18F, California Administrative Office of the Courts, and other service design-focused environments inside and outside of public service.

By: GovFresh

Posted: May 15, 2021

Signal

Space Force outlines its vision for a digital service

The U.S. Space Force has outlined its vision for a digital service.

By: GovFresh

Posted: May 6, 2021

Signal

In-Q-Tel wants to talk to people interested in open source software and national security

In-Q-Tel, the innovation and venture arm of the U.S. intelligence community, has published several open source themed posts recently, including "Toward Secure Code Reuse" and, most recently, one about GitGeo, a tool it developed that analyzes the geography of developers associated with a GitHub repository.

By: GovFresh

Posted: April 28, 2021

Signal

The federal government is giving away free .gov domains to all official U.S. government entities

The DotGov Program, which administers .gov top-level domain assignments to official U.S. government entities, now offers the service for free.

By: GovFresh

Posted: April 27, 2021

Signal

How NASA and the open source community helped a helicopter achieve lift-off on Mars

GitHub has a great write-up of how open source community contributions played a key role in helping NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter achieve lift-off on Mars.

By: GovFresh

Posted: April 19, 2021

Signal

Biden nominates Robin Carnahan to be next GSA administrator

President Biden has nominated digital government innovator Robin Carnahan as the next administrator of General Services Administration.

By: GovFresh

Posted: April 6, 2021

Signal

Backpacks, bean bags and blue jeans: My take on 'tech titans,' 18F and USDS

Apparently, in 2021, there are people who still refuse to recognize the holistic, energetic and sustainable impact 18F and the U.S. Digital Services has -- and continues to have -- on keeping the federal government digital services industry and profession relevant and attractive to highly-qualified designers, developers, product and project managers and anyone generally interested in well-functioning U.S. Government technology.

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 22, 2021

Signal

Working in public

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 17, 2021

Signal

Roadmapping government websites

What's great about about the public roadmap, particularly for large government institutions, is that they show there is a plan, but they are also a powerful demonstration of civic openness.

By: GovFresh

Posted: February 1, 2021

Podcast

How government can design a human-centered social safety net

The Government We Need talks with Amanda Renteria about getting public benefits to people in the digital age.

Posted: January 31, 2021

Signal

Virtual queuing and appointment startup Whyline raises $1.25M from e.Republic Ventures

Virtual queuing and appointment startup Whyline has completed a $1.25 million pre-series A round led by e.Republic Ventures.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 28, 2021

Signal

Center for Plain Language publishes 2020 federal government plain language report card

The Center for Plain Language published its 2020 federal website plain language report card.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 13, 2021

Signal

GSA: Distributed work makes government teams happier, more productive and inclusive

The U.S. General Services Administration's 18F has a great post on why distributed government is critical to highly-functioning public service teams, emphasizing a 'distributed first' approach to work.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 12, 2021

Signal

Facebook announces Roy Austin will lead new internal civil rights organization

Facebook announced that Roy L. Austin, Jr., will join the company as vice president of civil rights and deputy general counsel to establish the company’s new internal civil rights organization.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 11, 2021

Signal

Mozilla: Here's how to proactively manage social media bad actors, including politicians

In the aftermath of the deplatforming of Donald Trump, Mozilla offers concrete advice on how to best deal with bad actors -- including heads of states and politicians -- on social media platforms, beyond just suspending or permanently removing them.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 10, 2021

Signal

Terms of use: Applying a human rights framework to social media platforms

To better demarcate the lines between freedom of speech and censorship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation calls for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to apply a human rights framework to their terms of use.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 8, 2021

Signal

Twitter permanently suspends @realDonaldTrump

Twitter announced it has permanently suspended Donald Trump's Twitter account.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 8, 2021

Signal

Making government research more inclusive

Canadian Digital Service design research team members Martha Edwards and Anne-Marie Mulumba share great insights into how people in government are making their research more inclusive.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 7, 2021

Signal

2021 GovTech 100 list highlights key companies helping power local government, but there's still a lot of room for open innovation

Government Technology released its annual GovTech 100 list for 2021 and, while there are newcomers to the list, there is still a lot of room for new innovation.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 6, 2021

Signal

Cori Zarek named new executive director for Georgetown's Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation

The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University today announced that Cori Zarek will take over as executive director.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 5, 2021

Signal

New DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act gives governments easier access to official .gov domains

I've been an advocate of U.S.-based government organizations having .gov domains for quite sometime, so it's great to see Congress has made this easier and potentially cheaper to achieve.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 5, 2021

Signal

U.S. Air Force is doing a brand review 'to ensure an inclusive and professional environment'

The Department of the Air Force has directed commanders to conduct a comprehensive review of official and unofficial unit emblems, morale patches, mottos, nicknames, coins and other forms of unit recognition and identity to ensure an inclusive and professional environment within 60 days from Dec. 23, 2020.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 5, 2021

Signal

GAO publishes agency data governance assessment, recommendations to Chief Data Officers Council

The U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report on data governance progress across four federal agencies.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 4, 2021

Signal

Veterans Affairs publishes 'government’s first-ever employee experience journey map'

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs published what it says is the government's first-ever employee experience journey map.

By: GovFresh

Posted: January 4, 2021

Signal

The Government We Need: How government can make public budgeting more participatory

Shari Davis talks with The Government We Need about building a more inclusive, democratic public budgeting process.

By: GovFresh

Posted: August 5, 2020

Podcast

How government can make public budgeting more participatory

Shari Davis talks with The Government We Need about building a more inclusive, democratic public budgeting process.

Posted: August 5, 2020

Signal

The Government We Need: How government can support climate action

The Government We Need talks with Rick Cole about local government's role in sustainability.

By: GovFresh

Posted: July 27, 2020

Podcast

How government can support climate action

The Government We Need talks with Rick Cole about local government's role in sustainability.

Posted: July 27, 2020

Podcast

How government can find its purpose

The Government We Need talks with Brian Elms about how government can ask the right questions and find its true public service purpose.

Posted: October 7, 2019

Podcast

How we can code a better government

The Government We Need talks with Code for America founder Jen Pahlka about how technology can be a force for civic change.

Posted: August 14, 2019

Podcast

How we can bring more diversity into elected office

The Government We Need talks with Run for Something’s Sarah Horvitz about the changing face of local politics and how to elect diverse representation.

Posted: July 25, 2019

Podcast

How government can secure us in the internet+ era

The Government We Need talks with Bruce Schneier about internet+ security and government’s role in keeping us safe.

Posted: June 19, 2019