New Website, State of the Union Guest Puts Focus on Government Digital Squads

This post has been updated. 

The economy still proved to be king when it came to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

But Obama hit on a few key technology initiatives during the address. 

For one thing, there was the president's call for action from Congress to "better meet the evolving threat of cyberattacks."  Last week, Obama announced a slate of cybersecurity initiatives, including enhanced cyberthreat information-sharing between the government and private companies.

Other Obama administration tech initiatives, meanwhile, weren't given a direct shout-out by the president Tuesday night. But their presence was still felt, if only implicitly. 

Kathy Pham, a member of the administration’s 6-month-old digital fix-it squad, the U.S. Digital Service, attended the speech in person as a special guest of Michelle Obama's. The first lady's box is often used by presidents to put a human face on policy priorities. 

Pham, a former data analyst and software engineer at Google and IBM, now works as a health data expert for Obama’s digital team, and she’s working to improve veteran access to health care. Pham’s brother, who also attended the speech, earned a Purple Heart for his service in Afghanistan, according to a White House bio.

Pham's appearance with the first lady proved to be a shot of publicity for an office that has so far remained relatively low profile.

Just hours before the speech, the White House also unveiled a new public website for USDS. The Obama administration created the digital office last August in response to the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov in 2013. The agency’s mission: to help agencies more smoothly roll out digital projects and fix any wayward IT projects before they get out of hand.

Many of the office’s employees – said by administration officials to number about 20 – are former Silicon Valley alumni. The office’s administrator, Mikey Dickerson, is a former Google engineer who played a lead role in the HealthCare.gov rescue operation last winter.

Strange as it may seem, before Tuesday, the central digital office had no real public Web or social media presence. In addition to the new website, USDS also rolled out a Twitter account, @USDS.

The group’s first tweet was a link to a video introducing members of the team.

Thanks to the new website, we’re also learning more about the projects USDS is tackling.

“U.S. Digital Service teams are taking on thorny technical and design projects which touch everyday lives,” a message on the new website states. “We are going after the stuff that matters: from benefits for veterans and the health insurance marketplace to student loans, electronic health records, tools to combat human trafficking, and much more.”

Among those projects:  

• Working with HealthCare.gov developers to ensure a smooth second-year rollout of the Obamacare website;

• Helping the Department of Veterans Affairs improve the way veterans access benefits;

• Coordinating tech efforts between aid organizations and governments in the response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa; and

• Redesigning and modernizing the visa application system, in partnership with the departments of State and Homeland Security.

The main USDS office – or USDS HQ, as the administration is calling it – will remain a relatively small “central crew” of digital innovators working out of the White House. Its main goal, going forward, is to sow agency-level digital-services offices across government.

In fact, the “core work” of the Digital Service will be at those agency-level teams, according to the new site.

USDS is now working on recruiting “founding members” for these new teams. Entreaties to apply for a spot with USDS are plastered all over the new site. 

“We’re looking for doers and makers, creative thinkers and specialized technologists,” a message on the new website states.

In particular, the agency is looking for product managers, engineers and designers.

Applicants can sign up for stints as short as one month, one year or a "permanent or unbounded" assignment, according to the site. 

"Some people are hands-on-keyboard-coders,” federal Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith said in the video introducing USDS. “There's also amazing designers. There's product managers … You may not think you belong in the U.S. Digital Service, but we want you.”