Technologists to create ‘trustworthy’ copy of GSA web design system amid AI-driven takeover

A group of technologists is standing up a governance committee that will eventually create a point-in-time copy of the General Services Administration’s web design system that agencies use to build accessible, mobile-friendly websites.

The People’s Design System — a Slack community of nearly 200 technologists from the public and private sectors — circulated a Google Form on Friday to create the governance committee. Form responses are due tonight and seek technologists able to contribute at least two to four hours of work over the next 30 days. The initiative has already secured the participation of contributors affiliated with state governments, digital service contractors and non-profits, according to the form.

An open source community is “not just about shipping code. It's not just about passing integration tests. All that is important, but it's also about communications and trust,” Noah Kunin, former infrastructure director for GSA’s 18F, told Nextgov/FCW in an interview.

The governance committee comes on the heels of a controversial takeover of the U.S. Web Design System — or USWDS — GitHub by Sam Corcos, a Department of Government Efficiency alum who now holds three top GSA roles in addition to serving as the Treasury CIO, and Ryan Parker, a Treasury Department artificial intelligence engineer. 

Parker became the USWDS lead last month after Anne Petersen, the longtime leader of USWDS, was placed on administrative leave, and individual contributors to USWDS began to lose access to GitHub repositories as Parker took the reins of the design system, Nextgov/FCW reported in mid-September. 

The takeover has alarmed a coalition of software developers and former government officials, who, in an open letter first reported by FedScoop, told GSA leadership that USWDS is “in jeopardy.” The letter raised concerns that Corcos and Parker have deleted comments in the USWDS GitHub and added AI programs to auto-approve changes. 

Nextgov/FCW has confirmed that some USWDS GitHub comments have been deleted and AI tools such as CodeRabbit have been added to the repository. Parker posted a GitHub thread last week stating that the new USWDS team’s goal is to “automate as much accessibility testing as possible across current and future USWDS versions.”

“We can introduce those automated systems, but it has to be part of the community and governance process,” Kunin said. 

Amid the USWDS shakeup, multiple organizations are pinning USWDS to prevent receiving code updates they don’t trust, Casey Watts, a USWDS contributor, told Nextgov/FCW in an interview.

Watts added that if USWDS becomes “less reliable, like it seems like it's going to be,” then agencies will be at increased risk of violating Section 508 and other laws requiring websites to be accessible.

“If you choose to use [USWDS], you should understand that it is no longer the project it used to be, and you will not have the same assurance of accessibility or usability that you used to have,” Matt Henry, former USWDS engineering lead, wrote in a mid-September blog post.

With a governance committee, the People’s Design System wants to create a hard fork of USWDS, which is a point-in-time copy that does not receive or push upstream updates. The particular version of USWDS that will serve as the point-in-time copy has not been determined.

“If you desire a reliable, accessible, trustworthy, and transparent alternative [to USWDS] and have time to help build the new governance structure, please submit this form to express your interest,” the Google Form reads.

GSA did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Technologists launched the People’s Design System in January amid a lull in significant USWDS updates, Watts said. The People’s Design System has created the Open Government Design System, or OGDS, GitHub, which includes enhanced versions of USWDS components and new components.