

Rate our startup: Challenge.gov - jrallison
http://challenge.gov

======
credo
Interesting to see two (imo) extreme reactions - on one hand, the top-comment
says _"In what way is this a "startup"? It looks more like thinly veiled
advertising for the government than anything else."_. Another comment says
_"Wow! Very ambitious and bold startup. People are solving more society
problems than the Govt itself."_

I'm in the middle. I do think that it is a startup (assuming that they're
leveraging a common platform to build these sites) I also think that civic-
oriented sites are a good idea and contribute to society (Of course, I'm
biased because I build civic-software apps, though not for the government :)

OTH I think it is an exaggeration to use this site as an example to say that
_"People are solving more society problems than the Govt itself"_.

 _[edit] Just saw the reply that the site was built for free. Apologies for
saying that I assumed that the govt outsourced this website to the contractor
and that govt contracting is generally lucrative

I think building the site for free is great for both sides. For your startup,
it is great PR and will help win future clients. For the govt, it helps saves
money for other work. Congratulations on building the site._

~~~
sudonim
We responded to a request for information and built it for free.

( original rfi:
[https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id...](https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=bf7019eb2287a3516f1d16bb5e6328d2&tab=core&_cview=1)
)

~~~
davidu
I'd love to hear more about how you navigated this process. I had just assumed
it was "impossible" unless you are Boeing or Halliburton.

~~~
bmelton
RFIs are completely different than RFPs. RFIs have much less stringent
requirements, and are usually (gasp) awarded to whomever can convince the
government that their bid is the most capable or complete.

RFPs are the scary ones, in which to even enter means you're competing with
the likes of Boeing, Grumman, Halliburton, et al. Those are nigh impossible to
win without serious inroads pre-existing.

------
yummyfajitas
In what way is this a "startup"? It looks more like thinly veiled advertising
for the government than anything else.

Some "challenges": "How Has Social Security Made a Difference in Your Life?"
"Write about how you've used government information in your life and have your
story posted on GovGab"

Ignoring the most blatant propaganda, the rest are just feel-good projects of
no consequence. On the front page, the only project that even pretends to be
significant is "Connecting Kids To Coverage Challenge". Apparently there are 5
million children who have de facto health insurance, but are counted by the
census as "uninsured". Your challenge is to change their census
characterization by encouraging their parents to fill out some paperwork.

It's obvious that our enlightened bureaucrats are unwilling to risk losing
their jobs if a crowdsourced solution actually works better than they do
(witness the backlash against, for instance, charter schools and vouchers).
Why should we care that, as a purely propaganda move, the government is
crowdsourcing the problem of teaching children how to become president?

~~~
jbooth
So, if we set aside all of the ideology about how if anything involves the
word government, then we all need to jump on some kind of bandwagon..

If we set all of that aside, this looks like a decent idea, no? More
engagement is what we need in this country. Ask not what your country can do
for you and all of that.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I won't get into a debate over the merits of JFK's catch phrase, "Ask not how
the state can serve you, ask how you can serve the state." If having the
population serve the state is the goal, why not actually help them serve the
state in some significant way?

All I was pointing out is that the vast majority of what you find on this site
is irrelevant. It's nothing innovative, it's just advertisement for various
departmental outreach projects. A poster contest on carbon monoxide safety?
"Help Fight Environmental Crime Art Contest"? "A video contest promoting a
healthy weight..."?

If you actually want to crowdsource public problems, do it. I seriously doubt
that will happen, since disruptive innovation might put some government
workers out of work, but if you can do it, great. This site just isn't it, and
isn't even in the ballpark.

(I'll grant that a couple of good prizes are advertised there, as pointed out
by poet. I clicked around a bit more, but didn't see any significant contests
besides the green car/green plane contest he pointed out.)

~~~
jbooth
You got JFK's quote wrong.

If you're deliberately going to mischaracterize anyone to the left of Newt
Gingrich, why even pretend to debate?

~~~
yummyfajitas
Oops, my mistake, I substituted one synonym ("state") for another ("country").
But how did I mischaracterize the quote? In what way is the meaning different.

Regardless, you are ducking the main point to nitpick a small quotation error.

~~~
jbooth
There's a world of difference, and you know that, otherwise you wouldn't have
rephrased it in order to try and provoke an emotional reaction.

The main point was, what, that not every single project on this list is world
changing? Good. Little changes add up and are easier to achieve. There were
some big projects on the list as well.

------
ataggart
Unless you need to legitimately initiate violence against others, it's not
clear to me what "the government" brings to problem solving. A perpetual game
of political whack-a-mole isn't my idea of progress.

------
ericz
Government startup? What a rare phrase

------
JangoSteve
Nice. So ChallengePost, Inc. was founded January '08 [1], has Steve Wozniak as
an advisor [2], already has a PageRank of 6/10 [3], and now has successfully
launched a government site [OP]. At what point do you guys start considering
yourselves a successful/promising company, no longer a "startup"?

[1]
[http://appext9.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY...](http://appext9.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=3617486&p_corpid=3616575&p_entity_name=challengepost&p_name_type=A&p_search_type=BEGINS&p_srch_results_page=0)

[2] <http://mixergy.com/challengepost-brandon-kessler/>

[3] <http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php> (you'll have to enter it
yourself)

EDIT: btw I'm no trying to detract from this aaccomplishment. This is pretty
cool. Just a little confused as to what stage you guys are in.

~~~
bkessler
Hi, founded the corp in '08, closed tiny funding round in Nov '08 (when the
global financial sky had fallen), launched live June 29 '09, got the federal
gov 10 months later, had 2 employees until 2010, now have 5. True startup
indeed...

------
cmars232
This webpage has a redirect loop.

The webpage at <http://challenge.gov/> has resulted in too many redirects.
Clearing your cookies for this site or allowing third-party cookies may fix
the problem. If not, it is possibly a server configuration issue and not a
problem with your computer.

~~~
lotharbot
Also comes up when you block cookies, which is what I do by default (convince
me that your site is worth having cookies on, and I unblock them.)

~~~
jrallison
We'll fix this, thanks!

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DrewHintz
Where should we report security vulnerabilities in the site?

~~~
leftnode
Yeah, found a few myself.

~~~
DrewHintz
How about a challenge.gov Challenge to help secure the site?

------
wicknicks
Wow! Very ambitious and bold startup. People are solving more society problems
than the Govt itself. Website like yours will help gather international teams
to look at community problems. This is like taking Open Source Movement to the
"hard" world.

Wish you all the very best!

------
keltex
How did you get a .gov domain?

------
adamdecaf
"This webpage has a redirect loop.

The webpage at <http://challenge.gov/> has resulted in too many redirects.
Clearing your cookies for this site or allowing third-party cookies may fix
the problem. If not, it is possibly a server configuration issue and not a
problem with your computer."

~~~
jrallison
Sorry about that. We'll get this fixed.

------
davidcann
I just heard a story about this on the PBS NewsHour podcast. It's a nice
overview of the project!

[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/09/gov20-kundra-
cho...](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/09/gov20-kundra-chopra-
challenge-dot-gov.html)

------
euroclydon
Nice site, but now the government has _yet another_ entry point for grants.

~~~
sudonim
Actually, the site doesn't cover grants... just focused on challenges /
contests for now.

------
ThomPete
Interesting. Do you have to be american to participate?

~~~
sudonim
You probably have to be an American to win - but not participate on the site.
Each country has it's own laws governing contests, and there's no way (for a
large organization) to open a contest to "everyone in the world" without
getting lawyers from each country in the world to make amendments to the
language.

It's a shame.

I ran a contest a few years ago and just ignored getting lawyers, so it was
open to anyone. Had I known then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have run
the contest. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

------
viggity
so how exactly does one go about procuring a .gov domain?

~~~
sudonim
Build a website for the government.

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gorm
Where is the source code?

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notmyname
why are you trying to save db on my disk?

~~~
sudonim
all your db are belong to us?

but seriously, what?

~~~
notmyname
<http://i.imgur.com/b1oLx.png> is what I see when I visit the site

