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United States Digital Service Origins

An oral history documenting how the United States Digital Service
came to exist, and the initial days of building its foundation.

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June 6, 2025

Launching an Oral History of the Origins of the United States Digital
Service

Opinions about technology's role in government are everywhere right
now. As founding members of the United States Digital Service, we
could easily add our voices alone to the discourse -- especially after
it was reorganized and renamed to the United States DOGE Service on
January 20, 2025. 

While there's certainly a need to think strategically about the
future, it is also critical that we understand and learn from the
past, because hard-won lessons shouldn't be overshadowed by
controversy or politics. After all, having a government that
functions and delivers on its promises to the public shouldn't be
divisive.

That's why over the past several years we have been collecting
stories and experiences from our colleagues -- the people who laid the
foundation for an organization that brought over 700 technologists
into government across three presidential administrations. Today we
are proud to share the outcome of this work: an oral history
documenting how the United States Digital Service came to exist, and
the initial days of building its foundation.  

The United States Digital Service Origins features nearly 50
interviews, spanning 2009 - 2015, with those involved in the founding
of the United States Digital Service, as well as some of the first
leaders of agency teams and Communities of Practice. Each interview
stands on its own, but in the aggregate the interviews piece together
a larger story and vision of technology in government, and the
realities of creating something new in an environment that is often
paralyzed by inertia. 

When we looked across interviews, we were able to identify key themes
and lessons, and create a chronology of events that tell the story of
how the U.S. Digital Service was conceptualized and how it came to
life. We also identified key quotes that together provide a sense of
the experience itself -- what the work was actually like, as well as
differing views and reflections on that time.  

This is just one part of a larger story that led to the U.S. Digital
Service; it's one part of a 20+ year civic tech movement that
transcends organizations, disciplines, and borders, and is built on
the belief that people with experience designing and delivering
digital products, combined with institutional knowledge and
positioned at the right level of government, can transform public
services -- and that if we do this right, maybe we can make life even
just a little bit better for people.

That story and movement doesn't halt when one program -- or presidency
-- comes to an end. Because it's a body of work that's bigger than any
agency or group of people. 

Whatever form government technology teams take in the coming years,
the U.S. Digital Service's legacy and learnings are relevant. It was
not perfect, but it demonstrated what was possible, and those who had
an opportunity to serve were forever changed.

- Kathy Pham and Emily Tavoulareas

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