Technical writing as public service: working on open source in government
summary
Federal agencies adopt and adapt an open-source eRegulations platform originally from the CFPB and retooled for ATF and two more agencies, with the codebase in Python/Django and published documentation on Read the Docs. Documentation includes theming and developer guides plus plain-language explanations of how regulations work so agencies can maintain the app after handoff. Content designers write precise installation steps, policy comments for the OMB 20% open source policy draft, and developer-facing docs that make reuse and cross-agency contribution possible.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Introduction and welcome
- 1:05Digital services in government
- 3:58How the federal government works
- 6:35Introducing 18F and its mission
- 8:44Government’s scale and impact
- 11:16Role of technical writers in government
- 13:02Documenting regulations and laws
- 15:38Open source policy and technical writing
- 18:27Open source as public service
- 20:16Software’s role in government
- 22:04Public domain and government works
- 24:39Why documentation matters
- 25:19Closing the government-citizen gap
- 27:51Working for government and next steps
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