Hacking the Bureaucracy One Task at a Time

Jun 23, 2014

Are you having trouble getting training or professional development opportunities? Federal employees can gain access to a variety of professional development opportunities and work on digital projects across the government through the Open Opportunities program.

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Open Opportunities are tasks and projects that help you develop and strengthen skills, work with others across agencies to get stuff done and break down silos. Mike Pulsifer from the Department of Labor says Open Opportunities provided him the chance to do “really interesting work that cuts across the silos of government.”

People have worked on big tasks like developing a mobile code sharing catalog, leading a project to create content models, and tracking mobile trends and writing blog posts. Some have worked on smaller tasks like helping clean up data to improve search results, designing badges, video captioning and copy editing.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Why would my agency let me spend time working on projects for other agencies?” Your agency wins by learning from other agencies, developing staff talent, and helping build a more collaborative and innovative 21st century government.

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So, with Open Opportunities we all win: you, your agency, the agency you completed the task for, and all of government.

Be sure to check out how it works, sign up and learn about the work Open Opportunities innovators are doing, and the benefits that participants and their agencies gain.

Open Opportunities participant Bridget Roddy from Department of State found that “by lending a hand to others in government [you] get a sense that we are part of one U.S. government agency.”

Are you ready to join in?