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.