_posts/2015-09-15-federalist-platform-launch.md
---
title: "New Federalist platform lets agencies quickly launch websites"
date: 2015-09-15
layout: post
authors:
- melody
tags:
- platforms
- federalist
- tools you can use
- product launch
excerpt: "18F’s new Federalist platform is a suite of tools designed to make it faster for government agencies to build websites that are secure, responsive, and accessible."
description: "18F’s new Federalist platform is a suite of tools designed to make it faster for government agencies to build websites that are secure, responsive, and accessible."
image: /assets/blog/federalist/sbst-screenshot-2.jpg
hero: false
---
_Summer 2017 Update: Federalist [left beta in June 2017](https://18f.gsa.gov/2017/06/01/federalist-is-out-of-beta-and-open-for-business/) and is currently seeking new customers. Email us at federalist-inquiries@gsa.gov or fill out this [Google form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSesNI1qlov7Ec_1u2FralYWg9hV4WsB-3FyAHPXc1pRT6In7w/viewform) if you're interested in using Federalist for your office._
Today, the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST)
[launched their new website](https://sbst.gov/).
What may not be apparent from looking at SBST's site is that it was
built using 18F’s new [Federalist
platform](https://federalist.18f.gov) (currently in alpha release), a
suite of tools designed to make it faster and cheaper for government
agencies to build websites that are secure, responsive, and accessible.
You can think of Federalist as the glue that ties a lot of
already-existing platforms together. Federalist automates common tasks
for integrating GitHub, a content editor, and Amazon Web Services,
providing a simple way for developers to launch new websites or more
easily manage existing ones. (The platform also supports Microsoft's
Azure through open source contributions.)
18F developed Federalist for two audiences: federal developers who need a platform for
reliable, quick hosting of static sites, and federal groups that may not
have a developer on staff but need secure, accessible, and responsive
websites to get their content out to the public.
Federalist users will be able to create new sites from a suite of
well-designed templates and won't need any technical knowledge to edit
their pages. The platform includes a content editor designed for simple,
Section 508-compliant content creation, and eliminates the need for
expensive development and design efforts.
"Federalist provides a way for people who are creating this information
to get it out to the public quickly and easily, and edit it when they
need to," says Gail Swanson, the lead researcher and designer on the
project. "It allows them to build a site that is accessible for people
on mobile, 508 compliant, and secure."
## Simple and compliant
Federalist is designed to be simple. Each site comes equipped with
templates that make it easy for content creators across the federal
government to focus on what they do best: creating content. Once the
text has been written, images uploaded, and a page published, the
outward-facing website will be fast, reliable, and easily scalable.
The platform uses the same scalable content delivery strategy that was
developed for NotAlone.gov and healthcare.gov and puts that power into
the hands of every federal agency that uses the platform. Over the
weekend, President Obama [launched the College
Scorecard](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/09/14/college-scorecard-launch/),
which “empower[s] Americans to rate colleges based on what matters most
to them.” To meet the expectedly high demand, the College Scorecard
launched on Federalist as a static website with a custom-designed
template.
"This is a platform that's as easy to use as posting to a social media
site, but has the flexibility and scalability that the federal
government requires to manage humongous traffic," says Swanson. "If the
government needs to put out a text-heavy document, it can do that. If
there's something that has videos and illustrations, it can do that
too."
## Working with SBST to build a better platform
The SBST team approached our team in early June and said they wanted a
website built for mid-September. At the time, the Federalist platform
existed, but was a very simple version of the way it works today.
Over the past three months, we’ve worked closely with the SBST team.
Their input and feedback have been invaluable and helped inform both the
design and development of the Federalist platform. We were able to
validate what worked - and what didn’t work - with real users who tried
the platform out from its very first days. We listened to their feedback
and worked with them to refine our software to meet their content
creators’ needs. We couldn’t have asked for a better (or more patient)
partner, and we want to thank the SBST team for working with us in
real-time to build a better product.
Working with SBST also surfaced the need to create tools and guides that
would help users on our platform. To assist people getting started with
a new website, we made the [Federalist Content
Guide](https://federalist-docs.18f.gov/pages/content-guide/) for writers who
will use the platform to create departmental websites and share
information about their teams.
## Why static?
Federalist is designed for publishing static government websites.
Whereas dynamic websites generate their content every time someone
visits the page, static websites are delivered to users exactly as they
are stored on a server. Dave Cole, the lead developer on the project,
has [written
extensively](https://developmentseed.org/blog/2012/07/27/build-cms-free-websites/)
about static sites, and how they can help make websites cheaper, faster,
and more reliable. Federalist uses features already offered in GitHub to
store and manage content.
"Rather than building a custom CMS from scratch, Federalist puts a layer
on top of an open source platform which already has proven scalability,"
says Jeremia Kimelman, a developer on the program. "That's one of the
great things about this platform."
## How to learn more
If your agency or department is interested in using Federalist, we’d
love to talk to you more about the platform. Visit
[https://federalist.18f.gov](https://federalist.18f.gov) to get
started.