United States Digital Service Origins

Summary

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 to the noise — 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 reflec...