A new team of digital experts will work...

A new team of digital experts will work with federal agencies to make their websites more user friendly and improve their back-end technology, said a White House news release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1B9D9EI). Former Google engineer Mikey Dickerson will helm the squad, dubbed the U.S. Digital Service, in his new role as deputy federal chief information officer, the White House said. Dickerson previously helped work out Healthcare.gov glitches after the site launched, said the administration. His team will work to establish government digital service standards “in line with the best private sector services,” and set up accountability measurements to bring each agency’s services up to the standards. The White House also requested public comment on two reports released Monday as part of the government’s IT tool kit -- the Digital Services Playbook (http://playbook.cio.gov/) and TechFAR Handbook (http://playbook.cio.gov/techfar/). The playbook “lays out best practices for effective digital service delivery and that will serve as a guide for agencies across government,” and the handbook explains how agencies can execute the playbook in line with Federal Acquisition Regulation, the White House said. Comments can be submitted at each item’s home page.