Ben Balter writes about technology leadership, open source, and modern collaboration at scale. His essays blend engineering mindset with management, community building, remote work, and transparent communication—shaped by years of experience at GitHub and in public-sector tech.
175 articles from this blog
Debunks the myth that open source software is inherently insecure, comparing it to proprietary alternatives and explaining its security advantages.
A former government employee compares bureaucratic culture at a federal agency with the trust-based, developer-happy environment at GitHub.
Explores the reasons why government software is often closed-source, examining procurement practices, vendor influence, and cultural barriers to open source adoption.
Critique of FedRAMP's cloud security framework, arguing it creates bureaucratic barriers that hinder government adoption of innovative, cost-effective cloud solutions.
A follow-up analysis of U.S. federal .gov domains, tracking changes in technology, security, and accessibility over three years.
A guide to evaluating the health and sustainability of open source projects before adopting them, covering metrics like activity, community, and documentation.
Argues for moving beyond open government to collaborative government, using open source software development as a model for public participation.
Explores the fundamental differences between Word and Markdown, arguing Markdown's semantic nature is better suited for web content creation.
Argues that successful government tech innovation depends more on changing bureaucratic culture than on implementing new technology.
A tutorial on adding GitHub-style hover anchor links to headings on a Jekyll-based GitHub Pages site using CSS and JavaScript.
Explores the evolving definition of open source, debating whether it's about collaborative contribution or the right to freely modify software.
Analyzes why government open data initiatives fail due to poor API design and documentation that ignores developer needs.
Discusses the internet's pragmatic ethos and why using GitHub for large datasets requires rethinking desktop paradigms for web-native, granular data delivery.
How using Jekyll, a static site generator, allowed a GitHub project to focus on content quality and an open-source editorial workflow.
A Presidential Innovation Fellow shares 10 key lessons on driving tech innovation within government, focusing on culture, process, and bureaucracy.
Argues for treating data like open-source code, with version control and community collaboration to improve quality and transparency.
Explains the concept of 'friction' in open source projects and offers strategies to reduce it for new contributors.
Explores how open source projects can engage non-technical contributors, expanding beyond just code to include documentation, feedback, and community building.
Argues that simple, open standards like HTTP, JSON, and Markdown consistently win over complex, heavyweight solutions on the internet.
Argues that in government IT, the main challenge isn't technology but cultural adoption and bureaucratic inertia.
