2018 Government Innovation Awards
A better way to build websites
Federalist first surfaced as an 18F experiment in 2015, but after emerging from the beta phase last summer, the project hit its stride. It now serves not only as an express lane for agencies seeking a speedy and cost-effective web presence, but also as a proving ground for any number of transformative digital practices.
As a service for hosting and maintaining websites, Federalist makes a persuasive case. It runs on a cloud infrastructure that has been certified under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, manages HTTPS certificates on behalf of customer agencies and can deliver 1 million page views for just 39 cents.
Its larger impact, however, might be in showing agencies that there’s a better way to develop websites with version control on the back end, easy builds of static pages for quick downloads, starter templates that are device-agnostic and Section 508-compliant, and an open-source technology stack.
Notable sites running on Federalist include the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber.dhs.gov, the Interior Department’s revenuedata.doi.gov, the Education Department’s collegescorecard.ed.gov, the General Services Administration’s vote.gov and the White House’s opioids.gov.
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