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
A guide for government employees on participating in and contributing to open source software projects.
A developer explains migrating from WordPress to Jekyll for a static site, discussing performance, simplicity, and the 'post-CMS' trend.
Analyzes the debate on releasing US government-funded software as open source vs. public domain, focusing on legal nuances and practical barriers.
Argues against personal dashboards in modern web design, citing information overload and user preference for focused, task-specific interfaces.
Argues for writing all software as if it will be open source, promoting modular design and long-term maintainability even for private projects.
A guide for government agencies on publishing public data effectively for developers, focusing on clean data, APIs, and real-time access.
A critique of Microsoft SharePoint as a collaboration tool, arguing for better alternatives and modern approaches to document management.
Explores using WordPress as a central collaboration hub for teams, extending it beyond traditional web publishing.
A report on enterprise open source usage trends, highlighting increased adoption, contributions, and challenges with formal policies and license management.
The CFPB accepted a typo fix from an open-source developer on GitHub, marking the first direct public collaboration on federal government code.
Analysis of the CFPB's new open-source policy, praising its mandate while highlighting missing community engagement guidelines.
Analyzes why WordPress has low adoption in government despite its market dominance, focusing on perception issues vs. technical capabilities.
Debunks the myth that PHP is inherently insecure, attributing its reputation to FUD, its ubiquity, and its forgiving nature for beginners.
Explores how a GitHub-like 'fork and merge' feature in WordPress could revolutionize collaborative editing and version control for newsrooms.
A collaborative list of open-source alternatives to proprietary enterprise software, hosted on GitHub for community contributions.
Analyzes the outdated U.S. federal IT procurement model, advocating for regulatory reform and agile development practices to improve efficiency.
A 2011 presentation on using WordPress plugins to integrate social media, encourage sharing, and boost visitor engagement.
Argues for adopting Agile development in federal IT to replace outdated waterfall methods, improve efficiency, and adapt to changing tech needs.
Analysis of why tech companies struggle to attract digital talent, citing bureaucracy, lack of challenge, and poor work environments.
WP Document Revisions plugin now integrates with Edit Flow, adding advanced workflow features like email notifications, custom metadata, and team chat.
