[liyanchang]

Disclosure: I'm an engineer at USDS and these are my own opinions.

You make a great point - USDS is just one part of the solution. In fact, in almost all of the USDS projects, we work very closely with agency employees and contractors (many of which are just as talented and have chosen to serve their country). Most of the times, I spend very little time hands-on-keyboard and helping empower the existing team.

As for the longer term solution, there is a less publicized version of what folks are doing. USDS has a number of contracting officers who are helping teach others in government how to be savvy customers of technology. 18F and GSA have been doing a lot on this front as well to help bring in really good contractors and writing agile purchasing agreements. The Office of Federal CIO is rewriting and simplifying tech policy and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy has been working on the procurement side. These are the long term changes that I'm personally excited about.

[GVIrish]

That is great news, I think engaging and training COR's across government could yield some real improvements to how these projects go.

I'm personally seeing some 18F projects come down the pipe that are truly innovative and hopefully will encourage organizations to think differently about IT procurement. Still a lot of silly stuff out there but at least the ship is starting to change heading.

[zacharycohn]

What 18F projects are you excited about?

[Disclaimer: I work for 18F and will probably point those teams at this comment so they can do a happy dance!]