iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Aaron Snow

Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

The US Web Design System is load-bearing infrastructure for thousands of government websites. It makes it easy for small teams with no resources (i.e. most .gov teams) to make usable, accessible websites that work for everyone. Today, it's as close as it's ever been to being replaced with AI slop.

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 09/09/2026

Hey, I made a side project thing: dadjokepostcards.com. Pick a terrible joke, have it mailed on a postcard to someone who deserves it. Inspired by wanting to keep the #dadjoke torture going, multimedia style, even when my kids are away at camp or in college.

dadjokepostcards.com

Pun & Post — mail someone a dad joke on a postcard

Pick a groan-worthy dad joke, add a note, and we'll print it on a real postcard and mail it to anyone you choose.

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 07/08/2026

Step outside Go blind Grumble Wipe humidity off eyeglasses Grumble again Ode to Maryland in August, maybe

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 07/07/2026

Are companies paying a lot for "I'm not a robot" captchas or are they just delay spinners that make you wait longer than any robot will put up with

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 27/03/2026

Chase DeLauter is currently on track to hit 324 home runs this season

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 09/02/2026

I've never heard a Bad Bunny song in my life until today, and I haven't understood Spanish since I was a senior in high school. But that halftime show was just brilliant. Joyous, awesome. 10/10.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

NBA Stat @nbastat.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

The Cavs halftime show. What??!?!??! #NBA

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 10/09/2025

Cleveland will hold a counter-protest at Huntington Bank Field, running 1995 clips of people booing, pulling the chairs out of Municipal and burning Art Model in effigy, soundtrack by Nirvana and Trent Reznor

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 08/09/2025

Shot: "The last [18F] report urged the courts to 'start small.'" Chaser: "In mid-2022, the administrative office awarded a five-year, $298 million contract to General Dynamics Information Technology." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

nytimes.com

Federal Courts Slow to Fix Vulnerable System After Repeated Hacking

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 26/06/2025

Nobody asked for Americans to need tax preparers or filers at all.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Chris Given @cmgiven.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Direct File is now open source. Finally. A short, personal post about why: chrisgiven.com/2025/05/dire... Massive kudos to the Direct File team for pulling this off and showing their commitment to transparency and earning trust.

chrisgiven.com

Direct File on GitHub

Personal blog of Chris Given, government technologist. These words are always written by a human; I have no one to blame but myself.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

We have some news to share with you. 🥄 Today we took legal action to challenge our termination, filing an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. We did this because we believe the elimination of 18F violated safeguards that exist to protect a nonpartisan civil service.

18f.org

18F files legal challenge

A statement about 18F’s appeal filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 29/04/2025

Outstanding thread for Canada's Election Day

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 22/04/2025

RIP Richie Havens, who died 12 years ago today. Boy, this cover hits differently now youtu.be/JltNLkh03ME?...

youtu.be

Richie Havens "License To Kill"

YouTube video by powerplaynetworks

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 01/04/2025

A guy in our neighborhood has been posting a dad joke in their front yard every day since the pandemic started, and he chose today to get violent

A sign that says:

Tom's bad dad jokes, day 1808

Today is April Fool's Day

Believe nothing and trust no one.

Just like any other day.

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 11/03/2025

A quick story about big "bloated" systems that people love to hate. When I was at Microsoft a million years ago, I had a friend on the MS Word team who told me this one. (I got the details second-hand; MSFT friends, please correct me.)

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 11/03/2025

18F had already saved the US government over a billion dollars in cost avoidance by the time I left in early 2017. No doubt it and TTS have saved much more since then -- all for the cost of a couple hundred civil servants' comp and benefits annually.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Alt US Digital Service @altusds.altgov.info · 11/03/2025

@alt18f.bsky.social saved taxpayers billions, modernized digital services, and made government work better. 💡Now, DOGE has shut it down—eliminating projects that served voters, refugees, military personnel, and more. Read about 18F’s impact ⬇️ 🔗 www.wethebuilders.org/posts/what-i... #altgov #18f

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Randy Hart @randyhart.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

18F story behind my favorite government website: www.ustaxcourt.gov/dawson.html

ustaxcourt.gov

DAWSON | United States Tax Court

Docket Access

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 06/03/2025

I'm told some DC AUSAs got those pizza-threats too. Absolutely beyond the pale.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Richard Branson @richardbranson.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

(1/3) It needs repeating: in 1994, Ukraine was persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for the US, the UK, and Russia guaranteeing Ukraine’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.

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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

 You might know us from the guides we have put together, like the de-risking guide and the UX guide. Governments all around the world have used them to make services more accessible and add more value to the public — all while saving millions of dollars. You can still find them here: 18f.org/guides/

18f.org

18F Guides

A central resource for all 18F guides and methods

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 03/03/2025

What happens when you force mission-driven, impact-craving public servants out of their job, their career? I have no idea. I don’t think they all pack it in and go work for Fortune 500s. Somebody who could harness their energy and experience would reap big benefits.

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Angela Colter @angelacolter.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

18F alum here. While I appreciate the well-deserved attention the 18F team is getting, let's address a fundamental misunderstanding of why 18F was so effective in working with other govt agencies to improve their digital services and why starting a consulting company is not a substitute. 1/

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Dan Hon @danhon.com · 02/03/2025

You should know that a big part of 18F's work was to make sure multi-million to multi-*hundreds*-of-millions dollar contracts at fed *and* state level didn't go to shitty enterprise IT consultancies that *repeatedly* delivered tech that didn't work, was late, or didn't even do what it needed to

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 02/03/2025

This is a good instinct @mcuban.bsky.social + so glad you're tuned into this. I don't think DOGE will ever turn back to 18F. But there are huge opportunities to invest now in a post-DOGE future of government services that's not just more efficient but more secure and transparent to the public.

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Cyd Harrell @cydharrell.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

former colleagues from 18F have asked me to share this open letter widely - please pass on 🙏 🇺🇸 💻💪 18f.org

18f.org

We're not done yet | 18F

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Confirming what others have discussed or reported, 18F, the elite tech consultancy within TTS/GSA, was formally disbanded overnight. There’s a formal RIF, the legal system in which the government downsizes/layoff people. I’m told it’s 60 days on leave for all involved.

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Rebecca Piazza @rdpiazza.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Mourning 18F’s elimination as a former employee but even more so as a former 18F agency customer. Unlike DOGE, 18F did the hard work of cultural transformation and sharing their methods with other Feds as they helped improve services. They weren’t just techies, they were teachers.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Melody Joy Kramer @mkramer.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

working at 18F was a highlight of my career: smart, passionate, dedicated people doing work to lessen friction and make people’s lives a little easier.

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dan sinker @dansinker.com · 01/03/2025

18f were a bunch of badasses who actually *did* make government more efficient in a way that actually worked. And they did it while also being good people who cared deeply for the work, for each other, and for the people that used it.

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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 01/03/2025

This is tragic. Anyone who was familiar with 18F knows those were some of the real heroes of government, who helped make government tech/digital services better for the public. They were doing real work that DOGE pretends to do, but is too ignorant to know how to do.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Amanda Litman @amandalitman.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

18F did things like making online government forms (like filing your taxes or submitting VA claims) easier to fill out, create text message notification systems for govt agencies, and streamlining internal data sharing. They were literally making govt more efficient & user-friendly. This sucks.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Rubio terminated 5800 USAID contracts – more than 90% of its foreign aid programs – in defiance of the courts. Here’s a list of just some of the lifesaving awards that were terminated. Nearly all were Congressionally mandated. They’ve saved millions of lives. 🧵

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 25/02/2025

Our government is on a tear of terminating service and UX designers and researchers, accessibility specialists, and other customer experience expertise, while retaining (some) software engineers. It's penny wise and pound foolish. 1/

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Jacob Harris @jacobharr.is · 21/02/2025

Nobody: Absolutely nobody: Me: Do you all want to know why I think "replace bureaucracy with AI" is like turbocharging all the worst aspect of bureaucracy with few of the gains?

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Emily Tavoulareas helped found the US Digital Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She says the US DOGE team understands tech isn’t just about websites and apps—it’s the foundation of everything the government does. And now, they hold the reins. But to what end?

buff.ly

DOGE Understands Something the US Policy Establishment Does Not: Technology is the Spinal Cord of Government | TechPolicy.Press

For the US Digital Service, tech was a means to an end, writes Emily Tavoulareas. What is technology a means to now?

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 13/02/2025

This week an AI decided our house is for sale (reader, it is not). A local realtor's assistant, the wielder of said AI, emailed our neighbor to tell them it's on the market and ask if they want to buy it. 🤦‍♂️

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 11/02/2025

When I get off of this mountain, you know where I wanna go Straight down the Mississippi River to

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 03/02/2025

The reports of 18F's death have, so far at least, been greatly exaggerated

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 24/01/2025

A good consequence of working in the open, i.e., having all your source code/content in a publicly viewable place, is that the whole world can see when things are changed, and ask why.

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Reposted by Aaron Snow

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

You can watch the Trump administration play DEI whac-a-mole with employee policies and public websites on GitHub, which is automatically cataloguing all of the changes the 18F agency is frantically making to its internal and external webpages: www.404media.co/github-is-sh...

404media.co

GitHub Is Showing the Trump Administration Scrubbing Government Web Pages in Real Time

Watch the Trump administration play DEI whac-a-mole on this government agency's GitHub page.

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Aaron Snow @aaronsnow.net · 20/01/2025

So many wildly underappreciated public servants exiting today. ❤️ 🇺🇸 🙏 to every one of you.

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