Thoughts

Ideas, opinions, observations.

Joyful democracy and the virtuous civic circle

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of USA.GovFresh notifiable diseases page.

Civic hacking CDC notifiable diseases

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of USA.GovFresh jobs page.

Civic hacking USAJOBS

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of USA.GovFresh GeoMarks app.

Civic hacking National Geodetic Survey survey marks

Building a survey mark finder app.

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of Yosemite page on USA.GovFresh.

Civic hacking the National Park Service

Building a national parks directory with the NPS API.

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of USA.GovFresh drug search page.

Civic hacking FDA's National Drug Code Directory

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of USA.GovFresh cybersecurity news page.

Civic hacking CISA cybersecurity news

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of space photo of the day page on USA.GovFresh.

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.

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of Department of Interior page on USA.GovFresh.

Civic hacking the Federal Register

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of .gov search tool.

Civic hacking .gov domains

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

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of members of U.S. House of Representatives.

Civic hacking Congress (part 1)

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

Luke Fretwell

RSS icon

RSS government

Defaulting to an open protocol to syndicate government information makes public communications universally accessible.

Luke Fretwell

Statue of John Harvard, Harvard University

Pedigree and public interest technology

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

Luke Fretwell

Lincoln Memorial at night with car lights

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.

Luke Fretwell

Lincoln Memorial at night with car lights

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.

Luke Fretwell

Icon of the state of California

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

Time for Alpha 2.0.

Luke Fretwell

Icons of database

Father-son civic hacking: Open Data Day 2022

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

Luke Fretwell

Icons of database

Government open data in 2022

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

Luke Fretwell

White Medium logo on a black background

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.

Luke Fretwell

Screenshot of .gov search tool.

Civic hacking for '100% .gov'

Re-imagining the government domain name registry experience.

Luke Fretwell

Icons of database

Making a chief data officers playbook more accessible

And suggestions for the CDO Council.

Luke Fretwell

Picture of SARS-CoV-2

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

Adventures in father-son civic hacking.

Luke Fretwell

Olay Regenerist beauty product held by a Black woman in her left hand as she leans on her elbow. The lid is openable with one hand and the model with a limb difference smiles at the camera.

What government can learn from Olay

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

Luke Fretwell

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