Federal Source Code Summit: Towards a Source Code Community

Thursday, October 08, 2020 8:30 AM – 12:15 PM ET

Hosted by Digital.gov and the Code.gov

Logo for the 2020 Federal Source Code Summit has blue and black text on a white background.

Code.gov will host its first annual Federal Source Code Summit to share success stories and best practices for utilizing federal source code and open source software (OSS), and examine the implementation of the Federal Source Code Policy.

The U.S. government spends billions of dollars annually on information technology (IT). Whether sustaining legacy systems or procuring highly customized applications, the costs add up. Code.gov was launched three years ago to lead the charge for code reuse and open source development while providing agency partners and developers with resources to improve agency mission outcomes and provide quality service to save taxpayer dollars.

This summit includes success stories in the U.S. and abroad with source code and OSS, and participants will discuss next steps for continuing to build communities focused on OSS.

Note: This summit will be virtual and open to government employees and contracted vendors only (i.e., individuals with .gov and .mil email addresses).

Federal Source Code Summit Agenda

9:00 - 9:10am Welcome & kick-off by Nicole Williams, Code.gov Communications Director, General Services Administration

9:10 - 9:15am Welcome by Karen Trebon, Chief of Staff for TTS Solutions, General Services Administration

9:15 - 9:35am Summit Keynote by Daniel Morgan, Chief Data Officer, Department of Transportation

9:45 - 10:15am Chat with International Governments facilitated by Amin Mehr and Joseph Castle

  • Leonardo Favario, Open Source Project Leader, Department for the Digital Transformation, Italian Government
  • Shimon Shore, Chief Architect, Open Source Program, Israeli Government

10:20 - 10:50am Federal Source Code Study Results by Joseph Castle, Product Manager & Frontend Engineer, Code.gov

10:50 - 11:00am Coffee and stretch break

11:00 - 11:30am Policy Implementation Panel facilitated by Joseph Castle

  • Andrew Heibel, Program Lead for Walkoff, National Security Agency
  • Brian Lee, Senior Advisor, Informatics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Laura Beaufort, Technical Lead, Federal Election Commission
  • Joseph Amalfitano, Open Source Lead, Social Security Administration

11:40-12:10pm Software Development w/ Open Source Panel facilitated by Amin Mehr

  • Sara Cope, Product Owner of Digital.gov, General Services Administration
  • Taylor Yates, Software Engineer, NASA
  • Aidan Feldman, TTS Technology Director, General Services Administration
  • Rayvn Manuel, Developer and Engineer, National Museum of African American History and Culture

12:10-12:15pm Summit Closing

Speakers

Joseph Amalfitano is the implementation lead of the Federal Source Code policy at Social Security Administration (SSA). He is a passionate advocate for open source culture and breaking down organizational silos. Joseph has been with the SSA since 2009. He holds two master’s degrees from the University of Central Florida; one in Management Information Systems and the other in Accounting. When he isn’t working he can be found with his family, playing games, or tinkering with his smart home setup.

Laura Beaufort is the Technical Lead at the Federal Election Commission, where she works to increase transparency in campaign finance. At the FEC, she led the initiative to add the fec.gov’s code to code.gov and campaign finance API to data.gov. Her interests include application security, performance improvement, and fixing bugs. She also actively participates in the open source community, having contributed to several open source projects.

Joseph Castle is the Product Manager & Front-End Engineer of Code.gov where he is responsible for maintaining the Code.gov website and overseeing federal agency implementation of the White House’s Federal Source Code Policy. Dr. Castle earned his PhD from Virginia Tech and his dissertation focused on OSS publication in the federal sector. He served in the Obama Administration, is a U.S. Army veteran, and a Fed100 recipient.

Sara Cope is the lead engineer and program manager on Digital.gov at GSA. She is passionate about education and diversity in tech and loves helping others level-up their skills. When Sara isn’t immersed in all things web, she can be found playing tabletop games, collecting toys, and enjoying her local park system.

Leonardo Favario is the Open Source Project Leader of the Department for the Digital Transformation at the Italian Government. He is responsible for the open source strategy which involves Developers Italia, the publiccode.yml specification,the new National guidelines and the catalogue of opensource software created by public administrations and available for reuse. Previously, he was in charge of the open source strategy of the Digital Transformation Team working in the Italian Presidency of the Council, where he supported the establishment of the new software reuse model following the open source approach. Leonardo is a free and open source software advocate since a very young age. He holds a PhD in computer and control engineering and he has been a Fulbright BEST scholar in California where he also worked on the development of some open source platforms at Stanford University.

Aidan Feldman is the Technology Director at the Technology Transformation Services (TTS), where he supports the programs and people that transform how government uses technology. Previously, Aidan worked at digital service teams 18F and Census xD, and startups like GitHub and Artsy. He has taught software development at places like Cornell, New York University, and General Assembly, and founded Hacker Hours, which provide free office hours for people learning to code.

Andrew Heibel is the Program Lead for Walkoff. NSA’s open source workflow automation tool.

Brian Lee is the Senior Advisor for Informatics to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of the Chief Information Officer where he works with data to make technology better for public health programs. Brian is the program official for open.cdc.gov and data.cdc.gov, helping public health programs across all CDC centers, institutes, and offices connect open technology with public health communities. Brian joined CDC in 2012 as the Deputy Director for the Informatics Innovation Unit and later served as the Chief Public Health Informatics Officer for the Office of Public Health Scientific Services. Brian is a self-taught programmer and holds a BBA from Georgia State University, an MPH from Emory University, and multiple certifications.

Rayvn Manuel serves as the Senior Application Developer/Architect and Lead DevOps engineer for the National Museum of African American History and Culture [NMAAHC]. She is the principle programmer responsible for the planning, design, and implementation for some of the hands-on interactives developed for the museum. As the DevOps team lead, Rayvn is responsible for defining the standards, workflows and recommending the appropriate tools which NMAAHC’s development teams adopt/adapt to produce the museum’s digital products and serves as the primary administrator of the agency’s cloud-based resources.

Amin Mehr is co-product manager of Code.gov in the Office of Solutions within GSA’s Technology Transformation Services. On the team, he works on a range of topics including strategy, product, outreach, and customer experience to help agencies meet the objectives of the Federal Source Code Policy. Cross-agency collaboration is pivotal in ensuring that agencies are doing their best to build software in a smart and scalable manner. In his previous work at GSA, Amin served as former program director for Performance.gov alongside his work on the CIO Council. He also has previously led teams at the Small Business Administration and the Department of Commerce on BusinessUSA, The Small Business Innovation Research Program and a variety of other IT initiatives.

Daniel Morgan is the first Chief Data Officer of the United States Department of Transportation, having served in this capacity for five years. As the CDO, he has overall responsibility for the Departmental data program and data compliance across the Department. He is responsible for establishing a clear vision of the data managed in DOT and the application of DOT data for decision-making. He serves as data strategist and adviser, steward for improving data quality, liaison for data sharing and developer of new data products.

Prior to assuming this role, Mr. Morgan spent 15 years as a management consultant, providing services to public and private sector clients in a variety of areas, including: open government, information technology governance, capital planning and investment control, enterprise architecture, and human capital planning. Mr. Morgan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Shimon Shore is the Chief Architect for the Open Source Program in the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology and works closely with the Israel Government Information and Communications Technology Authority to advance the use of and contribution to Open Source software by the Israeli Government. Shimon helps to run the Israel Government Open Source community which acts as a knowledge and education center for Open Source in the Israel Government. He leads the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Open Source first policy. Shimon has over 30 years of software development experience in the private sector in which he contributed to and utilized many Free and Open Source Software. He utilizes that vast experience to advocate for Free and Open Source Software adoption in the public sector. He holds a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and now lives in Jerusalem.

Karen Trebon is the Lead for the Smarter IT Delivery Portfolio, one of five in the Technology Transformation Services within the Federal Acquisition Service at the U.S. General Services Administration. She manages the people, budget, and contracts that power Search.gov and Code.gov. Karen has been with GSA since 2002. She has a Bachelors in Government from the University of Maryland College Park and a Masters in Public Administration from George Washington University. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Prior to GSA, Karen worked for Amplify Public Affairs and the American Power Association. She also worked in Annapolis, and also did three brief stints on Capitol Hill with Senator Sarbanes, Representative Hoyer, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Nicole Yvonne Williams (Nikki) is the Communications Director for Code.gov. A veteran communications and public relations professional, she previously served as Senior Advisor and Communications Director for three Members of Congress and has been a spokesperson and consultant on various national campaigns and projects. Nikki is a “true blue” graduate of Spelman College and received her Master of Arts Degree in Communications Management from John Carroll University. She is active in The Links, Incorporated, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College and is a member of South Euclid United Church of Christ. Nikki is a drummer who loves music (especially live), puzzles, Spades games, laughing out loud and is a long-suffering Cleveland Browns and Cavaliers fan (2016 WORLD CHAMPS!).

Evan “Taylor” Yates is contracted as a Software Engineer for Open Innovation, where he works to cultivate open-source culture at NASA and generally improve the usability and discoverability of the agency’s public data assets. His main responsibilities include the maintenance and development of code.nasa.gov, data.nasa.gov, and api.nasa.gov. He also manages NASA’s public GitHub organization, where the bulk of the agency’s open-source code resides. As for his background, Taylor grew up in Spokane, WA, where he received a classical primary and secondary education. He went on to attend Claremont McKenna College in southern California, where he completed the Harvey Mudd College Computer Science major through a consortium arrangement. His favorite languages are Python, JavaScript, and Bash, and he prefers APIs over UIs when given the choice. His interests range from basketball and hiking to musical theater and online gaming.

This Summit is hosted by Code.gov with support from Digital.gov. Code.gov is the federal government’s platform for sharing America’s source code.