_posts/2016-04-12-7-18f-projects-that-state-and-local-governments-can-reuse.md
---
title: "7 projects that state and local governments can reuse"
date: 2016-04-13
authors:
- melody
tags:
- tools you can use
- open source
excerpt: "We’re starting to see state and local governments adapt or use 18F products or tools. Nothing could make us happier. Here are seven projects that would work particularly well at any level of government."
description: "We’re starting to see state and local governments adapt or use 18F products or tools. Nothing could make us happier. Here are seven projects that would work particularly well at any level of government."
image: /assets/blog/reusable-tools/checklistomania.jpg
---
We’re starting to see state and local governments adapt or use 18F
products or tools. Nothing could make us happier; all of our code (and
content) is available for anyone to use and reusable.
There are a number of open source projects that 18F has worked on that
could work particularly well at any level of government. We’re
highlighting seven below:
Public website analytics
----------------------------------------------
[](https://bouldercolorado.gov/stats)
We worked with the [Digital Analytics
Program](https://www.digitalgov.gov/services/dap/), the [U.S. Digital
Service
(USDS)](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/digital/united-states-digital-service),
and the White House to [build and
host](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/19/how-we-built-analytics-usa-gov/) a
dashboard showing real-time U.S. federal government web traffic. This
helps staff and the public learn about how people use government
websites. The dashboard itself is open source and can be adapted for a
state or local government. We recently interviewed folks from
[Philadelphia](http://analytics.phila.gov/),
[Boulder](https://bouldercolorado.gov/stats), and [the state of
Tennessee](http://analytics.tdec.tn.gov/) about [how they’ve adapted
the analytics
dashboard](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/01/06/tips-for-adapting-analytics-usa-gov/)
for their own use.
Quick mini-sites for content
--------------------------------------------------
[](https://pages.18f.gov/agile/)
We built a responsive, accessible [website
template](https://pages.18f.gov/) (based on open source work by the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) that we use primarily for
documentation and guides. You can take the website template, adapt the
colors and fonts to reflect your own style template, and have an easy
way to release notes about a project. We've used this template to write
[a guide on accessibility in
government](https://pages.18f.gov/accessibility/), [content
guidelines](https://pages.18f.gov/content-guide/), and [a
checklist](https://pages.18f.gov/before-you-ship/) for what needs to
take place before we release software. You’re also welcome to take our
content and adapt it for your own needs — what we write is in the public
domain.
Insight into how people interact with government
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[](https://labs.usa.gov/files/FFD_ResearchReport.pdf)
Over the last several months, staff from General Service
Administration’s USAGov and 18F teams have been talking to Americans
around the country about their interactions with the federal government.
The goal of the research was to identify and create cross-agency
services and resources to improve how the government interacts with the
public. Earlier this month, we published all of our research. You can
read the [full report](https://labs.usa.gov/#research-report) with
findings or explore [what we
learned](https://18f.gsa.gov/tags/federal-front-door/) on the 18F blog.
Market research for procurement
-----------------------------------------------------
[](https://calc.gsa.gov/)
We developed [a tool](https://calc.gsa.gov/) that helps you easily
conduct market research across a number of categories for acquiring
professional labor. You can read about how the city of Boston is [using
the
tool](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/11/10/boston-is-using-gsa-calc-tool/) to
conduct market research.
Vocabulary for user-centered design
---------------------------------------------------------
[](https://methods.18f.gov/)
We [released](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/08/10/18f-design-methods/) a
[deck of method cards](https://methods.18f.gov/) that help research
and design teams communicate a shared vocabulary across teams and
agencies.
Task management
---------------
[](https://github.com/18F/checklistomania)
We recently developed a [checklist
program](https://github.com/18F/checklistomania) that help users manage
complex to-do lists. One feature: checklist items deadlines can be set
according to a fixed date or relative to completion of other items. This
means you can create checklist for all new employees, for example, and
say “Task five should be completed four days after task four,” whenever
task four is completed by an employee.
Help small businesses find opportunities
-----------------------------------------
[](https://fbopen.gsa.gov/)
[FBOpen](https://fbopen.gsa.gov/) is a set of open source tools to
help small businesses search for opportunities to work with the U.S.
government. FBOpen presents an Application Programming Interface (API)
to published Federal contracting opportunities, as well as implementing
a beautiful graphical user interface to the same opportunities.
Anyone who wishes to may [reuse this
code](https://github.com/18F/fbopen) to create their own website, free
of charge and unencumbered by obligations. For example, a State could
promote economic development within its borders by taking this code and
making slight modifications to limit searches to their own State.