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.
183 articles from this blog
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.
Explores how open source projects can engage non-technical contributors, expanding beyond just code to include documentation, feedback, and community building.
Explains the concept of 'friction' in open source projects and offers strategies to reduce it for new contributors.
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.
A tutorial on converting proprietary Shapefile geodata to open GeoJSON format for mapping and collaboration on GitHub.
An open letter advising government CIOs to adopt lean, iterative, decentralized, and open development practices for better tech outcomes.
The article critiques the traditional approach to open source, arguing that simply making code public isn't enough without a cultural shift towards open collaboration.
Critique of tech firms that specialize in only one tool or language, arguing for problem-solving over rigid specialization.
Explores how open-source communities drive tech innovation, predicting trends like distributed version control and edge computing.
Explores the true meaning of 'hacker' beyond media stereotypes, focusing on the hacker ethic of sharing, openness, and creative problem-solving.
Introducing JekyllBot, a tool that automatically generates JSON APIs for Jekyll sites hosted on GitHub Pages, bypassing plugin restrictions.
Analyzes how U.S. federal IT security policies, while necessary, can stifle innovation and hinder adoption of modern, agile technologies.
Explores how open source collaboration principles can replace traditional management by enabling transparent, merit-based work across distributed teams.
Argues WordPress must adopt RESTful principles to separate content from presentation, enabling programmatic access for modern web needs.
Critique of using print-centric tools like Microsoft Word for modern web content creation and collaboration, advocating for web-native workflows.
Explores why open source is a philosophy of community and collaboration, not just publishing code.
