Autumn Heats Up with Challenge Competitions

The weather is cooling down, but challenges and prizes continue to sizzle in federal government.

We’ve been looking at Fiscal Year 2012 metrics, and there were at least 88 new challenges launched over the course of the year. About a dozen new agencies launched challenges, and @ChallengeGov’s Twitter following increased 90%. Federal agencies are driving innovation and the public is more interested than ever in reading about it.

Expert Advice & Training: Oct. 23, 1 PM: If you haven’t met the Department of Labor’s Chief Innovation Officer, Xavier Hughes, you’re in for a treat. Tuesday October 23rd, we are having a webinar where he will talk about four apps challenges, lessons learned, and his plans for the future. Xavier is an expert on how to have the public help you make useful mobile apps out of your agency’s data.

Call for Ideas: A Request for Information (RFI) from DARPA on FedBizOpps.gov. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is accepting ideas for Grand Challenges of the 21st Century until January 1, 2013. According to Federal Computer Week, they hope to attract attract ideas from a diverse audience – “young and old, scientist and layperson, domestic and international.” Submit your ideas, and spread the word to people you think would like to contribute.

Pictures Tell a Story: Thank you all for your support over the last two years! We have an updated Challenges & Prizes video featuring agencies and winners from HHS and sub-agencies, EPA, USDA, Department of Labor, Consumer Product Safety Commission, NASA and more.

Please share it with your colleagues to teach them about public prizes.

Support new Challenges launched in September and October:

FTC Robocalls – Federal Trade Commission is asking for a technical solution that will allow citizens to block illegal calls. This mission-centric challenge has captured the public’s attention and as of today has more than 1,200 followers and 40 discussions.
Big Data Challenge Series – A series of ideation competitions hosted through the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL). Conceptualizing new and novel approaches to utilizing “Big Data” information sets residing in various agency silos.
Evidence Based Care Challenge – Teams are challenged to translate Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports into innovative, provider-friendly resources that can be easily adopted.
Save Out Loud Photo and Video Contest – The Treasury Department is looking for inspiring stories about what students are saving for today, whether it’s a first car or a college education. The prize is a live conversation with the Treasurer of the United States for their classroom.
Blue Button Video Challenge – Create an inspiring and entertaining video that creates awareness of Blue Button, a universal symbol for you and your caregivers to get easy, secure, online access to your health information.
National Endowments for the Humanities Medal Design Competition – Seeking a new design for the National Humanities Medal, which is bestowed annually by the President of the United States in a White House ceremony.
Equal Futures App Challenge – Successful apps will promote civic education and inspire girls to serve as leaders in our democracy.
Humans in Space Youth Art Competition – Invites young people from 10 to 18 years of age to submit visual, literary, musical and video artwork expressing their vision of how will humans use science and technology in the future to explore space.
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Body Armor Challenge – There is currently no known way to determine the amount and rate of change in performance of individual body armor vests over time without ballistic testing. The NIJ Body Armor Challenge hopes to solve this problem.
Drought Code Sprint – A call to developers across the country to use publicly available government information to help farmers, ranchers, and others gain quick and reliable “one-click” access to information on drought conditions and Federal drought relief.

As always, our regular resources are available 24/7 for you:

1. Keep up with new challenges, deadlines, and winner announcements at facebook.com/ChallengeGov or on Twitter @ChallengeGov
2. HowTo.gov Toolkit. Steps to plan, implement and improve challenges and prizes
3. Training on Demand, also on HowTo.gov. There were 3 live events and 3 webinars held in FY12.
4. GSA Schedule 541 4G for Challenge and Competition Services. We’re pleased to welcome Luminary Labs as vendor #15. DEA, FTC, State Dept.,
   EPA, HHS and other agencies are working with companies on this list. Let us know if we can help you learn more about this valuable resource.