There are lots of great ideas on BetterBuy. Applying them to a new acquisition will be a challenging task for federal acquisition professionals, given the risk adverse starting point. GSA's efforts to pilot these ideas will be the topic of my blog.

Step 1 - Form the Team

GSA is forming the acquisition team for this BetterBuy pilot project, identifying the right skill mix of personnel interested in new technology and innovation. First on the agenda is finding a Contracting Officer who is already familar with web 2.0 tools (e.g., someone who uses Facebook, knows what a "tweet" is. . . . ). Once we do that, we move on to the more difficult task:

Step 2 - Talk to Legal

My first reaction to any significant change in acquisition process is that it introduces risk. It may (and should!) yield long term benefits, but we'll never get off the ground without thoughtful support from our legal counsel. Fingers are crossed for that first meeting. I'll bring a copy of the article from Federal Computer Week for them!

Step 3 - Find the Project

In many ways, this will be the easy part. GSA is moving quickly into web 2.0 tools. There will be no shortage of opportunities to find the project. We already have one or two candidates under consideration.

We are looking for feedback and thoughts. Please comment away with tips on how to navigate the process.

Okay, so maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. But the BetterBuy Project has been making some media appearances that we thought you might like to know about:

First, there's this Federal News Radio interview with our ringleader, GSA's Mary Davie. Speaking from the 2009 Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, VA, Mary talks to FNR's Daily Debrief about the most exciting part of BetterBuy: The fact that GSA will actually be piloting some of the best ideas on real live acquisitions.

Mary also noted that part of the impetus behind BetterBuy was a great blog post by Andy Krzmarzick, formerly of USDA and now officially GovLoop's second employee, entitled "10 Ways Social Media Will Streamline Federal Acquisition". It's must-reading for anyone interested in what we're doing, or in Acquisition 2.0 generally.

Secondly: Our moms always said we had a face for radio, but I guess Federal Computer Week wasn't listening, because they went ahead and put BetterBuy on the cover! Check it out:

The full cover story, by FCW's ace Acquisition Editor Matthew Weigelt, reads, in part:

Although years of outsourcing and impending retirements threaten to drain the acquisition workforce of its most experienced contracting officers, the procurements that jam the inboxes of the remaining employees aren't getting any less complicated. They need new methods and faster ways to award contracts quickly and successfully, administration officials say.

As a result, the acquisition community is turning to Acquisition 2.0.

Described simply, Acquisition 2.0 is about thinking differently and putting new procedures into play. Government officials and insiders are gathering to pose questions -- both philosophical and practical -- to one another at conferences and virtual meetings. They are also turning to social-networking sites in search of others' expertise.

The ultimate goals are efficiency, cost savings and better performance, say those who are leading the movement.

© Copyright 1105 Government Information Group, used by permission

Note: The following was also posted on Huffington Post, SF Chronicle, and Craig's personal blog You can also follow Craig on Twitter.

We're seeing something new from Washington, sites which are being used to help figure out how to better serve citizens.

Toward that ends we're seeing sites used to get ideas as to how to run agencies better, and how to improve fundamental processes involved in areas like acquisition, the purchase of the stuff people need to do their job. Some innovation sites are internal, focusing on ideas from the rank and file that management needs to hear about. Some innovation sites are outward-facing, trying to figure out how better to work with the public.

The American Council for Technology/Industry Advisory Council, the National Academy for Public Administration and GSA have launched the BetterBuy Project. The focus is on how our government can do a better job of buying stuff needed to serve the country.

Their blog has an explanation, in brief:

The federal government spends approximately $530 billion annually on the acquisition of a wide range of goods and services to meet mission needs, and the acquisition process represents one of the most important and complex areas of collaboration between government and the private sector. As demand increases, the complexity of what program managers need and what acquisition officials are buying has also increased. Government acquisition officials are being asked to do more with fewer resources. To provide the government with the goods and services it needs, the private sector is faced with an equally complex and challenging environment. Think of the hundreds of thousands of buys the government makes each year and the demand on the private sector to respond to those requests.

The BetterBuy Project team believes that we can increase transparency and openness in the process, potentially reducing costs to both the government and private sector, ultimately allowing government to deliver more value to taxpayers through the use of collaborative technologies. This vision, coupled with encouragement from the Obama Administration for federal agencies to use emerging social media platforms to share information and generate discussion on key issues, resulted in this collaborative effort between the General Services Administration, the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council and the National Academy of Public Administration.

Our success depends on your ideas and support as we test those ideas.

In a few moments, GSA's Mary Davie and the National Academy of Public Administration's Lena Trudeau will be holding a press conference on the BetterBuy Project from the 2009 Executive Leadership Conference. They'll be discussing how the project works, what we hope to gain from it, and how all this stuff is actually making government better. Assuming all the A/V stuff works out, we'll be live-tweeting the whole thing! Follow @betterbuyproj or follow the whole event at #elc09.

Update: Schedules being what they are, we're now slated to start a bit after 4:30. Sorry for the delay!

Update 2: Via the excellent GovCon (@GovCon), here's a very cool live twitter stream of the ELC action: The livestream has been moved below the fold, along with a transcript of our livetweets. Thanks for playing along!

Thanks for checking out the BetterBuy Project. The federal government spends approximately $530 billion annually on the acquisition of a wide range of goods and services to meet mission needs, and the acquisition process represents one of the most important and complex areas of collaboration between government and the private sector. As demand increases, the complexity of what program managers need and what acquisition officials are buying has also increased. Government acquisition officials are being asked to do more with fewer resources. To provide the government with the goods and services it needs, the private sector is faced with an equally complex and challenging environment. Think of the hundreds of thousands of buys the government makes each year and the demand on the private sector to respond to those requests.

The BetterBuy Project team believes that we can increase transparency and openness in the process, potentially reducing costs to both the government and private sector, ultimately allowing government to deliver more value to taxpayers through the use of collaborative technologies. This vision, coupled with encouragement from the Obama Administration for federal agencies to use emerging social media platforms to share information and generate discussion on key issues, resulted in this collaborative effort between the General Services Administration, the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council and the National Academy of Public Administration.

Our success depends on your ideas and support as we test those ideas. We are excited by the thought that we'll encounter some new and unfamiliar territory. We'll keep you posted on what we're doing and how it's going throughout the process. You'll also hear from our contributing bloggers who will provide their thoughts, insights and experiences throughout our journey.

Thanks again for your help!

Hello and welcome to BetterBlog, the official blog of the BetterBuy Project! I'm Dan Munz, and I'll be your host-slash-webmaster here on this site.

As you know (or can find out by reading our FAQ), BetterBuy is a project dedicated to surfacing innovative ideas for making federal acquisition more open, participatory, collaborative -- and, ultimately, making government an efficient and effective customer. My organization, the National Academy of Public Administration, is part of the BetterBuy team because we believe that, as our President Jenna Dorn often puts it, "none of us is as smart as all of us." Federal acquisition is an area of government that could really benefit from some fresh eyes. We're seeking ideas not only from those who oversee the federal acquisition process, but from experts who study it, as well as the real customers of the acquisition process -- the federal agencies and vendors who have to navigate it.

We're collecting those ideas over at our main site, a nifty little web portal where you can suggest ideas, discuss them, and vote on the best ones so that they rise to the top. The coolest thing about this all, in my humble opinion, is that we're not all talk; as part of this project, GSA (in particular, the truly awesome Mary Davie) will actually pilot some of the best ideas on real, living, breathing acquisitions. This, my friends, is government 2.0 in action.

Our recipe on this blog is simple: One part transparency, two parts great ideas, shake vigorously. This is the place where you can follow along as we select, implement, and report on how the selected ideas are really turning out and what lessons we're learning along the way. We'll also be inviting a whole bunch of exciting guest-bloggers - from renowned experts on federal acquisition to new leaders in the world of "government 2.0" - to share their perspectives and ideas about making the acquisition process more open and accessible.

So take some time to explore the blog, click around - and, more importantly, to head to BetterBuy and share or vote on some great ideas - and check back often as we document the process of making federal acquisition more transparent, less complex, and, well...just plain better.