House Digital Service’s Post

Last fall, we were excited to help run the 5th Annual Congressional Hackathon, along with Leadership offices from both sides of the aisle and our colleagues from across the CAO and legislative branch. Today, the long-awaited Hackathon 5.0 report was released on house.gov/Hackathon and you can be the first to read it. Check out the top moments from this event in the Hackathon video reel and photo album! (1/3)

This summer, the CAO's House Digital Service team launched HouseCal, the new all-in-one calendar for tracking voting days, hearings, markups, and meetings – all in real time! HouseCal lets House staffers add committee and caucus events to their calendars automatically and provides quick and easy access to live committee and Floor video feeds. These features, which the House Digital Service team developed based on staff feedback, will allow for better coordination within offices and more efficient scheduling across multiple offices.  𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗖𝗮𝗹, 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝗻: - 𝗩𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀: Watch Floor and committee proceedings in real time and see which hearings and markups have the most live viewers!   - 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: Customize the calendar to show different types of events, including recurring party and caucus meetings, committee hearings and markups, vote blocks, and more!  - 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀: See one or more specific Members’ committee and caucus events and subscribe to them in an Outlook calendar! HouseCal evolved out of the Deconflict Committee Scheduling Tool, which the House Digital Service team developed in coordination with the Committee on House Administration's Modernization Subcommittee to help reduce scheduling conflicts between committees. HouseCal expands on the Deconflict tool's scheduling features to provide the broader House community with a comprehensive, easy-to-use calendar. 

On Thursday, May 2, the CAO’s House Digital Service (HDS) participated in a service fair at the CAO Communications Staff Conference. We spoke to Comms and Digital Directors, Press Secretaries, and Press Assistants about our newest products available to communications staff in the House. We were especially excited to demo SocialStats for the first time, since it was originally an idea pitched and highly upvoted by comms staffers at one of our first listening sessions. We presented several tools, including: 1)     SocialStats Social Stats is a social media tracking tool that shows your office’s trends across X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook and compares them to averages in the House.  2)    HouseCal A spinoff of our Deconflict tool, HouseCal is a calendar displaying all hearing and markups that allows you to subscribe to a Member or Committee on your personal Outlook calendar. Calendars update automatically as soon as committees publicly notice any hearings or markups.  3)    SnapStream HDS partnered with the House Recording Studio to acquire licenses for SnapStream, a cloud-based clipping tool that allows you to quickly create, download, and share clips of House hearings and markups. 

Last fall, we were excited to help run the 5th Annual Congressional Hackathon, along with Leadership offices from both sides of the aisle and our colleagues from across the CAO and legislative branch. Today, the long-awaited Hackathon 5.0 report was released on house.gov/Hackathon and you can be the first to read it. Check out the top moments from this event in the Hackathon video reel and photo album! (3/3)

Last fall, we were excited to help run the 5th Annual Congressional Hackathon, along with Leadership offices from both sides of the aisle and our colleagues from across the CAO and legislative branch. Today, the long-awaited Hackathon 5.0 report was released on house.gov/Hackathon and you can be the first to read it. Check out the top moments from this event in the Hackathon video reel and photo album! (2/3)

In 2023, HDS pushed the House forward through technology while building alongside staffers, including advancing several recommendations made by the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Here is a look back at all we have accomplished this year. 1. Launched an Advisory Group 🗣 Through the new HDS Advisory Group and its newsletters, surveys, and listening sessions, over 500 House staffers have provided feedback to prioritize and contextualize projects. HDS hosted nine events for Congressional staff on technology topics this year and formed several focus groups to conduct user research. 2. Ran an AI Working Group 💻 In April 2023, HDS formed an AI Working Group with House staff to help offices understand and explore emerging AI technology. The team recruited over 200 staffers interested in testing and evaluating new tools, like OpenAI’s Chat GPT, to promote best practices and identify common use cases and limitations. 3. Launched Deconflict for Committee Staff 📆 HDS launched its first home-grown product, Deconflict, for committee staff in March 2023. This modern calendar interface provides staff visibility into each House Committee’s upcoming hearings and markups before they are publicly noticed, allowing them to adjust schedules for Members who are often expected to be in more than one place at a time. 4. Created Leadership Lists 🗒 Released in July 2023, Leadership Lists allows staff to easily view and edit their office’s memberships in party-specific email distribution lists. HDS collaborated with other HIR teams, along with Majority and Minority Leadership offices, to digitalize this tedious task for both Leadership and Member office staff. 5. Built a Flag Tracker 🇺🇲 HDS designed and built FlagTrack in conjunction with HIR’s Enterprise Digital Automation team. The tool is expected to pilot in January 2024 and provides staff with full visibility into the current status of constituent flag requests at each fulfillment phase so they know who to contact and how to respond to constituent order inquiries.   6. Conducted Multiple Leadership Elections 🗳 HDS facilitated digital voting for Member elections for seven caucuses over the past year, including for the House Democratic Caucus. HDS conducted market research and procured a product specialized in providing trustworthy and protected electronic voting to bring the voting process into the 21st century. 7. Hosted the First Institutionalized Hackathon 👩💻 In September 2023, HDS along with other colleagues across the CAO and HIR supported the 5th Annual Congressional Hackathon, an event jointly hosted with House Republican and Democratic Leadership offices. For the first time, the CAO was an official co-host, and the bipartisan event explored the role of digital platforms in the legislative process. 8. Expanded our Team 📈 Over the last year, our team has grown from two to 12 people! Read more about who we are at our internal website (https://lnkd.in/e_BZhnDX).

How We Work Member Focused, Service Driven  The House Digital Service (HDS) uses an iterative process to design new technology for the U.S. House of Representatives. We work directly with Members and House staff to identify operational challenges and implement effective solutions. Our team regularly solicits feedback from the House community to keep improving products after they launch.     The HDS Team  HDS is a cross-functional product team. In the private sector, a product trio is a group of three teams that work together to create technological solutions: product management, user experience, and engineering. The product managers determine the requirements for making a new tool, the designers create mockups based on user experience, and the software engineers produce the software. If you're a House staffer, learn more about what each team member does at our internal website at https://lnkd.in/e_BZhnDX!

The House Digital Service hosted a panel discussion on Innovative Office Practices featuring insights on how Congress has modernized over the past few decades and how current offices can implement solutions that benefit staff and their constituents. The panel, featuring Yuri Beckelman and Jeremy Deutsch and moderated by Betsy Wright Hawkings, emphasized the importance of proactive, creative thinking and shared advice on creating a culture that fosters innovation within a team. A successful office is one that:    Encourages Innovation: To bring about change, it's essential to sell ideas both up and down the chain, and host regular brainstorming sessions to allow staff to pitch ideas.  Empowers Staff: Encourage junior staff to lead meetings and explain the thought process behind accepting or rejecting a proposal. Junior staff should maintain trust with their Chief of Staff, consider timing when raising new ideas, and think through likely concerns in advance.  Learns from External Sources: Engage with experts and thought leaders from outside the Hill, especially in the district, for fresh perspectives and insights.  Overcomes Risk Aversion: Create an office culture that encourages trying new things, accepting mistakes, and taking calculated risks.  Focuses on Training and Development: Invest in professional development and training programs and encourage staff to share concrete examples of how they will apply what they've learned.   Expands the Legislative Correspondent (LC) Role: LCs should match effort and impact when responding to constituent correspondence and focus on ensuring that constituents feel heard. Some offices have shifted this role to include broader outreach responsibilities that include developing mass mailers, digital ads, and tele-town halls to proactively engage with constituents.  Uses AI Responsibly: AI tools like Chat GPT can be valuable in generating first drafts of constituent letters and speeches and can utilize office-specific style guides and the Member's voice. However, these drafts are considered as a starting point and still require human review and editing to preserve accuracy and authenticity.