Taking stock and gratitude

Even before the chaos of the moment, I’ve been doing some personal and professional introspection and retrospection over the past few months.

This has given me space to think about my work, reconnect with people that matter to me, establish new relationships, find the threads, and intentionally explore what and who inspires me.

Life is art

Those who know me know I’m a huge fan of Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” – which advocates journaling as a daily practice. While I don’t do it daily, journaling (writing generally) has always been a personal tool for discovery and regeneration.

Life is a canvas for creativity. “The Artist’s Way”, Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”, Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art”, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow” and “Creativity” all foster this belief for me and are sources I refer to regularly.

This note stems from my belief we’re all artists and journaling helps process thoughts and better realize creative direction. Albeit more personal than I’m accustomed to, consider this is a journal entry.

I believe:

• We’re all artists.
• People are powerful.
• Technology is fundamental.
• Together, people (and their art) and technology can change the world.

I’m lucky

For some reason, I’ve had the good fortune of working with amazing people on amazing projects. Some have gone nowhere, while others have far surpassed my expectations of their potential (usually after I’d moved on). I’m proud of my work and honored to have done it with people I respect and admire.

I’m embarrassingly lucky and extremely grateful.

Taking stock

The most meaningful work I’ve done has happened over the past 15 years, focusing on how design, technology and democracy impact and support one another.

This is me taking stock of this work and showing gratitude for those I worked with.

GovFresh

Everyone should have a creative sandbox, and mine is GovFresh.

Initially, it started as an aggregated view of official government RSS and social media feeds that made it easier for me to follow federal government activity. I registered the govfresh.com domain because the idea was you could refresh the page and get the latest government updates, hence GovFresh.

After visiting federal government websites, being dismayed, and generally seeing the disconnect between Silicon Valley (I lived in San Francisco at the time) and Washington, D.C. (where I grew up and attended college), I began blogging about government and technology.

Since then, GovFresh has served as a place for me to share thoughts, code, design, learn and engage with amazing people.

Gratitude: Way too many people to mention.

GovPress

In 2010, working with Dustin Haisler, I built a WordPress theme for the City of Manor (Texas) website. At the time, Dustin was the 20-something government technology wonderkid (then Manor’s chief information officer) who reached out to me to write for GovFresh. He’s now president of e.Republic.

Initially, this started as a web design project just for the city, but we both quickly realized it could easily be repurposed for other governments who couldn’t afford expensive web services.

Eventually, Devin Price and I developed GovPress, an official WordPress theme for government. Though the theme and repository are now inactive and archived, at its peak there were thousands of active installations (not including government).

I learned from GovPress the power of open source and its potential to exponentially solve government technology problems. It was the beginning of a realization that I still hold today: open source is the future of great democracy technology.

Gratitude: Devin Price, Dustin Haisler

Manor.GovFresh

The early days of Gov 2.0 or open government (what we now call civic tech) were magical. For me, one of those moments was co-hosting an event with the City of Manor, Texas.

Dustin and I organized a two-day event, Manor.GovFresh, that brought together around 100 government officials, civic innovators, entrepreneurs, and even a White House representative (Beth Novek), to share how this was possible. Some of the folks there went on to become influential voices and leaders in civic technology and still reference that event as special.

(Side note: Sometime later, President Obama visited Manor New Tech High School where Manor.GovFresh was held.)

Gratitude: Dustin Haisler

CityCamp

The first CityCamp was organized by Code for America Brigades founder Kevin Curry and Jen Pahlka in January 2010 in Chicago. It was part barcamp, part hackathon, and was another one of those special moments.

Afterwards, others began asking about holding a CityCamp in their city. Kevin Curry and I worked together (over Skype, beers and a three-hour time difference) and developed a strategy that would open source the brand so other cities could easily replicate the format locally. Ultimately, cities worldwide held CityCamps. For a few years, it was a source of connection between civic hackers and local government, but also for civic technologists globally.

Save the date, because, with the help of the Alliance for Civic Technologists and others, CityCamp is making a comeback.

Gratitude: Kevin Curry, Christopher Whitaker

FedScoop/StateScoop

Goldy Kamali and I met virtually during the early days of Gov 2.0 (me in San Francisco, her in D.C). What started out as me supporting her with the FedScoop newsletter turned into a partnership that changed how D.C. does government technology editorial. I laugh (and cringe) at how rudimentary I was in the beginning compared to where Goldy has taken it.

Today, Scoop News Group is a leading government technology media company. I’m in awe of but in no way surprised by what Goldy and her world class team have built and continue to build.

Still today, when I hear ‘Intro’ by The xx, I know it’s Gogo time.

Gratitude: Goldy Kamali

NuCivic

Andrew Hoppin was one of the first, if not the first, government chief information officer to lead on open source, actively adopting and championing its usefulness. Andrew went on to start a company, initially named Nuams (short for New Amsterdam Ideas), to build what he called OpenSaaS tools for government.

I supported Andrew and the team with a re-brand (NuCivic) and other strategic work.

The primary offering was DKAN, an open source open data platform for governments and nonprofit organizations. The NuCivic team was scrappy, passionate about and deeply committed to open source and its importance to government.

NuCivic was eventually acquired by GovDelivery, which was then acquired by Granicus. DKAN is still used by government agencies and organizations globally.

Gratitude to: Andrew Hoppin, Federica Pelzel, Teófilo Sibileau, Sheldon Rampton, Janette Day, Dan Feder, Aaron Couch, Jim Craner

CivicActions

I came across CivicActions researching development firms working at the intersection of open source and civics. Eventually, I began working with them on a shared, part-time basis. It’s tough to describe the work I did with CivicActions other than they gave me ultimate freedom to fill in the gaps. Those who know me know this is something I cherish.

Two byproducts I’m most proud of: Agile Government Leadership (now Technologists for Public Good) and OpenACR (a machine-readable VPAT tool led by the General Services Administration).

Gratitude: Aaron Pava, Henry Poole, Elizabeth Raley, Bill Ogilvie

ProudCity

When we started ProudCity, we wanted to bring continuously improving, cost-effective, open software web solutions to local governments. While small communities desperately needed it then, they need this more than ever today.

Today, ProudCity serves government organizations across the United States and is consistently honored by Government Technology as a GovTech 100 company. I’m proud of what we’ve built and how we’ve built it. I’m biased, but it’s the best government technology company in the world, and I’m excited to see how it grows beyond me.

Founding and bootstrapping a government technology company is hard. You learn about yourself, your co-founders, business, government, America. You meet great people who genuinely care about the communities they serve. You discover that government technology entrepreneurs are public servants in their own right and often don’t get the credit they deserve.

Gratitude to: Kevin Herman, Jeff Lyon, Alex Schmoe, Curtis McHale

CivicDMV

CivicDMV was a relatively short project to re-imagine how the Department of Motor Vehicles could do digital. Rachel Kroft and I worked together with a small group of other folks to prototype and socialize how DMV could be different. This work inspired the California DMV to move forward on digital transformation efforts.

With CivicDMV, I learned that even a strategic small nudge from the outside can spark big change on the inside.

Gratitude: Rachel Kroft

Code California

With the California Government Operations Agency (aka Angie Quirarte), I developed Code California, a resource to help state employees adopt open source software and culture.

It’s since evolved into something different, but the two of us learned a lot about key concepts of open source and quietly working in the open (GitHub). It laid the foundation for how we’d work on another endeavor that would come to have even more impact (California Alpha).

Gratitude: Angie Quirarte

Agile Government Leadership

In 2014, working with CivicActions, I started Agile Government Leadership as an open community of practice to bring together government and industry leaders to support, learn and collaborate around themes such as agile project management, open source, procurement and human-centered design.

I worked closely with Elizabeth Raley and Melinda Burgess, building the website, creating community, coordinating contributor white papers, hosting virtual conversations with digital service early adopters and all the little things you do to build a movement.

Today, AGL is Technologists for the Public Good and is now an official nonprofit organization.

Gratitude to: Elizabeth Raley, Melinda Burgess

The Government We Need

In 2019, I put a call out asking if anyone was interested in starting a civic technology podcast. Jessica MacLeod responded, and we called it The Government We Need. While we weren’t prolific (my fault), those interviews are now preserved on GovFresh.

Jess is thoughtful, intuitive and conversational, and I always enjoyed collaborating with her on each episode.

Gratitude: Jessica MacLeod

California wildfire response and recovery

When wildfires broke out in Santa Rosa and Paradise (California), ProudCity quickly stood up web presences so local officials could effectively communicate with their communities during two of the most devastating disasters in California history.

By no means were we on the front lines, but it’s impossible to not feel the sense of urgency and anxiety for those who were. I’ll never forget working on the Paradise/Butte County response website from my kitchen island, smelling smoke from fires hours away, feeling fortunate I could get a relatively good night’s sleep, knowing that those on the front lines were running on adrenaline and a deep sense of duty to their communities.

Through those experiences, I learned that we need better digital resilience in disaster response efforts, and that there’s still more work to be done there. I also learned the superpower of both the people who care deeply about their communities, but also volunteers that care deeply about people.

Gratitude to: Jake Bayless, Rebecca Woodbury, Christine Foster, Talia Smith, Kevin Herman

California Alpha

In 2020, Angie Quirarte called me one night to let me know about an experimental project California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. Called California Alpha, the idea was to create a small team for a three-month cycle that would re-imagine how the state could do digital service.

Angie asked me to serve as product designer, but also to help coach the team on working in the open. While it was a short timeframe, key members of the team (not me) led the state’s COVID-19 digital response efforts. It was also the incubator for what is now California’s Office of Data and Innovation. It was an honor to work with that team and an opportunity of a lifetime.

On Alpha, I learned about the need for crucial conversations and the importance of baking in long-term sustainable practices with the immediacy of day-to-day delivery.

Gratitude: Angie Quirarte, Hilary Hoeber, Art Khomishen, JP Petrucione, Aaron Hans, Kimberly Glenn, Chad Bratton, Carter Medlin, Rebecca Huval, Mike Wilkening

OpenACR

OpenACR – coupled with amazing public servants – was a byproduct of the work we did establishing an accessibility practice at CivicActions. To some at the time, discussions around a machine-readable VPAT may have seemed theoretical. Today, it is a reality.

Gratitude: Mike Gifford, Daniel Mundra, Owen Barton, Syed Azeem

Chief Ninnovation Officers Council

Sometimes, the world’s problems are solved on a recurring check-in with no agenda.

Gratitude: Joe Morris, Dustin Haisler

Department of Civic Things

I first met Rebecca Woodbury when she was a program analyst charged with revamping the City of San Rafael’s website. Those initial conversations about software-as-a-service and government procurement planted the seeds to a personal and professional relationship that will last forever.

Today, Rebecca is the CEO of the Department of Civic Things, a government content design service. We joke about it now, but initially Rebecca was incorporated as NAME REDACTED. I reached out to her to chat about branding and suggested she take a broader approach. We had several conversations about what best aligned with her as a person and her art. Ultimately, she landed on DoCT.

After prototyping a logo, she ran with it (faster than I was expecting). Today, DoCT is a thriving content service provider for local governments. Rebecca is an incredible person, and I’m proud to have been a small part of DoCT’s genesis.

Gratitude: Rebecca Woodbury

Proudly Serving

At some point, I had an idea to write a book for local governments, helping them understand and adopt a culture of digital. It didn’t happen. I reached out to Rebecca Woodbury to co-write it, and we still couldn’t get it off the ground. We then reached out to Marlena Medford and Kirsten Wyatt and everything began to click into place.

Proudly Serving is a true open, collaborative editorial project. While it’s been Rebecca and I from the beginning, others have been deeply involved at times and have been crucial to its progress.

And while it has taken much longer than I expected, the final product is something that will be a timeless, invaluable resource that helps government officials understand what it means to have a digital service culture.

Gratitude to: Rebecca Woodbury, Morgan Griffin, Marlena Medford and Kirsten Wyatt, Echa Schneider

Civic Hacking Agency

My son Elias and I began coding together during COVID. Many of the projects we first built now reside on USA.GovFresh, but we created the Civic Hacking Agency moniker to work under. There’s not much there, but it was the genesis of a project (ScanGov) that has evolved beyond even my optimism.

Inherently, I’ve known this, but CHA truly presenced me to HAFO. Hack around, find out.

Humans of Public Service

The first time I met Brian Whittaker was on a virtual call while vacationing near Sequoia National Park. The internet was spotty, but I still remember that it was such an enjoyable conversation.

He shared his idea for Humans of Public Service, and I remember telling him his wife would divorce him if he hired a professional photographer for every featured nominee. We brainstormed low-hurdle, more cost-effective options, and he landed on a really great contribution to the public servant community.

Brian is infectiously joyful, and I hope to work with him more. The work him and his team are doing is more important now than ever.

Gratitude: Brian Whittaker

ScanGov

In 2024, Elias and I built a website that graded state and federal websites on key web guidelines and protocol. The goal was to help government agencies understand key web standards and how they fared.

It’s been inspiring to watch him engage with government folks on GitHub (most of whom probably don’t realize they’re talking to a teenager), helping to improve their websites. We’ve talked with government officials and shared our story with industry press.

It has since evolved into ScanGov and Project ScanGov.

With ScanGov, I’ve learned deeper about how you can impact bureaucratic change from the outside. I’m proud of the way Elias and I worked together to build it, and I’m grateful for the back channel feedback from senior government leaders and public support from the broader civic technology community.

Recently, Aaron Hans joined as a maintainer to expand its scope and impact, but also prototype a commercial offering. The work we’re doing with ScanGov can truly help empower great government digital services at scale, and I’m extremely excited about its potential.

Gratitude: Elias Fretwell, Aaron Hans

Journalists

The narrative is an important part of civics, and journalists play a critical role in this. Thank you to those who have included me in their stories.

Gratitude: Paul Taylor, Keeley Quinlan, Rebecca Heilweil, Troy Schneider, Dennis Noone, Ben Miller, Nancy Scola and others

Et al

Gratitude to these folks (not mentioned above) for friendship, camaraderie and service to the people:

Ryan Wold, Mary Lazzeri, Hillary Hartley, Steve Spiker, Joy Bonaguro, Lenae Storey, Jake Rozran, Carlos Moreno, Carla Briceno, Greg Elin, Beth Archibald, Mai-Ling Garcia, Mark Headd, Camille Tuutti, Ido Ivry, Adriel Hampton, Lawrence Grodeska, Brian Purchia, Alex Howard

Open civic organizations

Much of the above work are examples of how organizations can impact culture internally and have very real impact externally. I call these open civic organizations.

More organizations – particularly civic tech nonprofits and government digital service teams and vendors – should employ this into their culture. It will pay dividends on your people and the bottom line.

Long live civic technology

We live in a new world order that’s causing good civic technology work to be undone. In more than one conversation, I’ve heard folks say civic technology is on the decline or dead.

Civic technology is more important now than ever, and its potential is boundless. As the kids say (or used to), if you know, you know.

My public service

In Proudly Serving, I wrote a chapter about reframing public service.

From the overview:

“The pillars of public service include government, non-profit, business, media, academia, and the general public. By reframing our context for what it means to serve, we shift power dynamics from ‘the government’ to ‘we are all public servants.’ This empowers everyone to have a shared sense of responsibility, accountability, and unity.”

I’ve never worked for government, but I’m proud of the work I’ve done in service to ‘the people’. It hasn’t been the traditional path or the one the traditional public sector industry celebrates, but I know my north star and that the edge will always be my creative zone.

JFDI

Years ago at a Code for America happy hour, there was a poster with ‘JDFI’ printed in sans-serif lettering.

“What’s JFDI?,” I asked.

I’m 99.99% certain it was Keven Curry that turned, looked at it and said, “Just f***ing do it.”

Since then, it’s been the perfect acronym to describe my philosophy on art and impact.

Momentum is everything.

Hack around. Find out.

Share your art.

JFDI.

Post script

Contact me if you’d like to work together or want to meet and discuss ideas (see also: services). I’m open to all the possibilities.