Over time, several trends have become apparent in regards to postings: 1) sometimes, there is not enough information or context to aid readers in getting a true understanding the suggestion, 2) lack of examples sometimes make it difficult to focus readers on how the suggestion might be implemented with Web 2.0 or social media technologies, and 3) many times original posters or other community members do not provide follow-on postings to add more context or answer questions.

When you post a suggestion or a follow-on comment, please try and provide some detail/context so that other readers, who may not be as knowledgeable as you in the subject matter, can grasp your ideas. Adding examples of how Web 2.0 and social media technology might be able to address your suggestion would be helpful as well.

We've received many postings to this site and value every one of them. There is a need, however, for follow-on community discussion on many of the postings. This type of exchange amongst community members will increase the overall knowledge of the community plus provide valuable context for the GSA, NAPA and IAC/ACT folks who will be determining which suggestions to address.

Thanks and keep your suggestions coming.

To date, the BetterBuy Project (BBP) has generated some superb input about ways to improve the federal acquisition process using Web 2.0 and social media technologies, as well as some other ideas on how to "fix" the process. I've summarized the main themes of BBP and categorized the ideas that have been generated thus far in keeping with the project themes: Openness, Collaboration and Transparency.

1) OPENNESS: Raise awareness of upcoming needs government is trying to fulfill, in order to assemble a pool of qualified providers who can compete on specific requirements.

Information Sharing. A number of respondents suggested methods for sharing information across organizations and agencies within the government. The formation of searchable information repositories containing results of market research, common contractual language, RFQ's and best practices appeared to be the common denominator amongst various participants. Often, it is difficult for acquisition professionals to search for and find information that would be useful in developing/executing their specific acquisition when looking across a single federal enterprise or government-wide.

2) COLLABORATION: Find ways for the government to engage in more 'open' conversations with the private sector on topics such as best practices, emerging technologies and innovations, and market conditions.

Collaborative requirements generation. Participants suggested that social media technology, such as wikis, be used to enhance the collaboration of process stakeholders, such as Integrated Project Teams, to develop the content of evaluation criteria, requirements documents, performance work statements, etc. There was recognition that collaboration between government-only participants behind federal firewalls would require different business rules and constraints than those collaboration efforts which also engaged industry and other non-federal players.

3) TRANSPARENCY: Give the public and interested parties timely data on upcoming and ongoing buying activities, with the goal of promoting fair and high-quality competitions.

Communications. A number of ideas were presented that would enhance the federal government's transparency and external communications with the vendor community during the solicitation process. Use of social media technology, including Twitter, live video streams, webinars, RSS feeds, and on-line chats could be used to supplement (perhaps in time replace) existing communications mechanisms to increase participation and reduce costs in the solicitation process. Several specific ideas included using Twitter to inform vendors of (proposal processing) status and using webinars for pre-proposal conferences or industry days.

Additionally, a number of suggestions indicated some level of frustration with the overall federal acquisition process, but did not directly address how Web 2.0 or social media technologies could be used to improve the process. This being said, these comments are valuable and add to the growing body of knowledge concerning the challenges being faced by today's acquisition professionals. These comments should be discussed and/or addressed by appropriate levels of leadership within the federal government.

I welcome other opinions on the above categorizations, especially if you have a different viewpoint. It's important as we move forward with this project that we understand the focus areas and the value statement of these areas contribute to improving the acquisition process for not only the practitioners, but the ultimate customer - the taxpayer.

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.

Why the Federal Acquisition Process?

On his first day in office, President Obama challenged leaders in government to "use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector." The acquisition process represents one of the most important areas of collaboration between government and the private sector.

Unfortunately, it is also among the most complex and least transparent. The Better Buy Project is an experiment dedicated to the belief that there's a lot of room for improvement in the way government buys products and services. We're testing this hypothesis by asking for your ideas on how to make acquisition process more open, transparent and collaborative.

The best part of this project is that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) GSA would really like to adopt some of your best ideas. Promising ideas will be selected by GSA to be piloted on an upcoming acquisition, where lessons learned will be captured for future implementation. But that really depends on us, and the ideas we're able to produce.

What Topics Are At Issue?

This project is concerned primarily with the pre-contract-award stages of the acquisition process--the activities that take place before the government "signs on the dotted line" to buy a product or service. Those areas are:

• Market Research and Requirements Definition Phase--Includes publicizing agency needs and requirements, and refining them based on further input and research about current capabilities.


• Pre-Solicitation Phase--Includes web-based research, discussions with other federal agencies, meetings and open discussion forums with the private sector to discuss potential solutions, and requests for information soliciting input and ideas. The requirements are also further refined at this stage in the process.


• Solicitation Phase--Includes the government notifying the private sector of the requirement through various channels such as E-Buy and FedBizOpps, holding open forums to discuss the requirement and answer questions (e.g., Industry Days), a review of the solicitation by interested companies, the written exchange between government and the private sector of questions, answers and clarifications on government requirements, and proposal submissions.

The ultimate goal is to improve how government learns about and chooses what it buys--in other words, to make government a more informed, more effective consumer.

What Kind of Feedback Are You Looking For?

We are looking for ideas to make federal acquisition more open, transparent, and collaborative. What does that mean?

• Open--Raise awareness of upcoming needs government is trying to fulfill, in order to assemble a pool of qualified providers who can compete on specific requirements.


• Transparent--Give the public and interested parties timely data on upcoming and ongoing buying activities, with the goal of promoting fair and high-quality competitions.


• Collaborative--Find ways for the government to engage in more 'open' conversations with the private sector on topics such as best practices, emerging technologies and innovations, and market conditions.

We believe that making the process more open, transparent and collaborative will make government more likely to end up with the right item at the right price.