{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "New White House Innovation Strategy Promotes Increase in Challenges and Prizes |Digital.gov",
    "description": "New White House Innovation Strategy Promotes Increase in Challenges and Prizes",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/10/29/new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"New White House Innovation Strategy Promotes Increase in Challenges and Prizes","summary" : "The White House released an updated Strategy for American Innovation last week, calling again on government to tap the American public’s brain trust","date" : "2015-10-29T01:00:05-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"kelly-olson" : "Kelly Olson"},"topics" : {
        
            "challenges-and-prize-competitions" : "Challenges and prize competitions",
            "crowdsourcing-and-citizen-science" : "Crowdsourcing and citizen science",
            "professional-development" : "Professional development"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-10-29-new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/10/2015-10-29-new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/10/2015-10-29-new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/10/2015-10-29-new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes.md","slug" : "new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/10/29/new-white-house-innovation-strategy-promotes-increase-in-challenges-and-prizes/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/10/600-x-408-Investing-in-the-Building-Blocks-of-Innovation-chart-A-STRATEGY-FOR-AMERICAN-INNOVATION-Oct-2015.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Investing in the Building Blocks of Innovation chart from A Strategy For American Innovation by the National Economic Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy, October 2015\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe White House released an updated \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/strategy_for_american_innovation_october_2015.pdf\"\u003eStrategy for American Innovation\u003c/a\u003e last week, calling again on government to tap the American public’s brain trust to advance agency missions and address issues of national importance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe revised strategy stresses the importance of initiatives like \u003ca href=\"https://www.challenge.gov/list/\"\u003eChallenge.gov\u003c/a\u003e, the official website for all federal incentive prize and challenge competitions, which have seen the participation of tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and citizen problem-solvers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/10/250-x-324-cover%5c_A-Strategy-For-American-Innovation%5c_National-Economic-Council-and-Office-of-Science-and-Technology-Policy_Oct-2015.jpg\"\n    alt=\"A Strategy For American Innovation by the National Economic Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy, October 2015\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\nThis latest installment of the plan, which first published in 2009, underscores the need for open innovation and public participation to solve critical problems. It pushes challenges and prizes to:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eallow agencies to pay only for success;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ereach beyond established government partners to increase the number and diversity of thinkers tackling a problem;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eand maximize the return on taxpayer dollars.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe federal challenges and prizes community has grown and matured over the past five years, working tirelessly to support every agency with the resources it needs to carry out effective challenges.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs acquisition expert Steve Kelman noted in two recent blogs for Federal Computer Week, open innovation is already changing the way government does business. The Weatherhead Professor of Public Management at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government \u003ca href=\"https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2015/10/challenge-and-change.aspx\"\u003ewrote\u003c/a\u003e that Challenge.gov “might be the most important innovation in the procurement system in recent memory.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe program breaks down barriers to innovation procurement in government, he wrote in a second \u003ca href=\"https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2015/10/kelman-challenge-redux.aspx\"\u003eblog\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Two of the barriers to change seen as particularly important in government are risk aversion and, relatedly, fear of making a mistake,” Kelman wrote. “Generalized risk aversion makes organizations worry about poking their heads up from the crowd too much. Here, GSA provides agencies with cover for trying something new; they can point to the governmentwide endorsement GSA sponsorship provides … If you want to change government, such organizations—both formal and informal—should be promoted and nurtured as important tools.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGSA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and agencies are committed to increasing the number and sophistication of public-sector prizes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContracts and grants are a great way for government to partner with industry and academia, but they require organizations to know the ins and outs of doing business with the government, Jenn Gustetic, assistant director for open innovation at OSTP, told Federal News Radio in a recent \u003ca href=\"http://federalnewsradio.com/federal-drive/2015/10/jenn-gustetic-white-house-wants-agencies-to-harness-the-power-of-crowdsourcing/\"\u003einterview\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The beauty of prizes and challenges is that they’re open to individuals from around the country,” Gustetic said. “It’s about the best ideas and the best solutions and not about people understanding the insider processes to work with the federal government. They really do unlock whole new classes of and channels for engaging people in solving a variety of different problems that traditional government tools don’t easily and readily allow you to tap into.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo help more agencies use challenges, GSA recently announced its first-ever \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/10/22/gsa-announces-first-ever-challenge-gov-mentorship-program/\"\u003ementorship program for challenges and prizes\u003c/a\u003e. A stable of 20 experts are making themselves available to anyone seeking advice on planning and executing open competitions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mentorship program will help make challenges and prizes a reality across the federal government, no matter the size of the agency or extent of the problem it seeks to solve.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut that’s not all.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOSTP in collaboration with the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/communities/crowdsourcing-citizen-science/\"\u003eFederal Community of Practice on Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science\u003c/a\u003e (CCS) and GSA’s \u003ca href=\"https://openopps.digitalgov.gov/\"\u003eOpen Opportunities\u003c/a\u003e program recently launched an \u003ca href=\"https://crowdsourcing-toolkit.sites.usa.gov/\"\u003eonline toolkit\u003c/a\u003e with case studies and tips for managing all types of crowdsourcing and citizen science projects. In addition, the CCS works across the government to develop best practices for designing, implementing and evaluating crowdsourcing and citizen science initiatives.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s one of several new initiatives designed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/10/22/building-momentum-open-innovation\"\u003ebuild momentum for open innovation\u003c/a\u003e in response to the White House’s call.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd the hard work is starting to pay off… Just take a look at Challenge.gov, where challenges listed on the site are fast approaching the 500 mark, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.challenge.gov/success-stories/\"\u003esuccess stories\u003c/a\u003e spreading across government.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}