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Government Team Experiments With Paying For Small Open Source Tasks (gsa.gov)
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. General Services Administration has a team within it called 18F. They describe themselves as an open source, digital services delivery team. In other words, they create software for use by citizens and other government agencies, and the software they produce is open source. Starting next Monday, October 26, they're trying out an interesting new experiment for procuring open source code. Like any other agency, they have a budget, and they're allowed to contract out work when it makes sense to do so. But there's a difference between big projects and small ones.
If their purchase doesn't exceed $3,500, they have the authority to just do it. Higher than $3,500, and they (not to mention the contractors) have to deal with a bunch of extra red tape. This brings us to their experiment. They're developing a system that will let developers bid on small software projects the GSA needs. It starts at the cap for "micro-purchases," $3,499, and developers can bid it down if they feel it's easier. Once a bid is selected, the developer(s) have 10 working days to send back functioning code with a specific set of acceptance criteria. 18F isn't sure how well it'll work, but it's a cool way to try and make it easier for the open source community to build things for the government.
If their purchase doesn't exceed $3,500, they have the authority to just do it. Higher than $3,500, and they (not to mention the contractors) have to deal with a bunch of extra red tape. This brings us to their experiment. They're developing a system that will let developers bid on small software projects the GSA needs. It starts at the cap for "micro-purchases," $3,499, and developers can bid it down if they feel it's easier. Once a bid is selected, the developer(s) have 10 working days to send back functioning code with a specific set of acceptance criteria. 18F isn't sure how well it'll work, but it's a cool way to try and make it easier for the open source community to build things for the government.
Software is one area where communism actually works.
From each according to his (or her) ability, to each according to his (or her) needs.
It is ironic that it is a capitalist country that is making it happen.
You'd think this'll all go to the lowest bidder (read: "India"), but they do limit this to vendors registered with SAM.gov. Has anyone heard of it? Do you have to be officially incorporated to participate, or does sole proprietorship works, too? What's the criteria? Would it be worth it?
A basic tenant of US government-created IP, that you can see throughout Wikipedia for example, is that any work created by the government is free of copyright. All that is really missing is the packaged dissemination of the work clear of any other required IP like licensed or proprietary libraries. It shouldn't take a freedom of information act request.
A United States government work is prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties. It is not subject to copyright in the United States and there are no copyright restrictions on reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance, or display of the work.
This is a good reason to have federal government software developed in-house instead of outsourced to the likes of Oracle, so that it can continue to benefit American people and other branches of governments instead of it being a recurring tax by corporations on the public sector.
I suppose it matters less for the amount of code you'll get for $4000 with government standards, but having a contract with the developers for bug fixes, improvements, etc is useful if you don't have your own team. A $4000 application with no updates is, well, not worth the money.
With a few exceptions, their stuff is primarily Javascript, Ruby, and Python. If those aren't your languages, I don't think you'll have much luck finding tags to bid on.
With a ten day delivery, the "preferred vendors" who get the info well ahead of the actual bid will know the larger project requirements and wind up delivering a big-bucks project in $3500 increments, each too small to sue over when they don't quite do the job and leaving any tough stuff to somebody else. No big change in the end-product, but a diffusion of the liability away from a prime vendor contract. Taxpayers will get to pay more.
of having to bend over backwards around regs that were written with the best of intentions and end up doing at least as much harm as good. In this case, the good is making it trickier to piss away money on bad software; the bad is disincentivizing looking for a good $10k solution in favor of piecing together three or so half-assed $3499.99 solutions.
I don't have the magic answer for how to prevent government waste, but having fixed caps like that across the board doesn't seem to be doing much good, because the waste is in making wrong priorities and going through the process to spend on them, not in overspending on the right priorities.
I think you are a Pessimist. The sky has dark clouds, and the weather is mostly wet, cold, damp and chilly around your house.
I am an optimist. The sky is mostly blue, the plants are getting the rain they need, the fireplace is warm, the book is nice to
read, and the forecast for the weekend is sunny and pleasant.
I think this software experiment is a good thing.
Do one thing and do it well, a basic tenant of Unix design. Maybe the government is following Unix philosophy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Do_One_Thing_and_Do_It_Well
This could be a good thing.
No, corporations aren't going to work on these things for 43,75 USD/hour.
As you can see by the screenshots they provide, the average winning rate is 171 USD/hour, which does add up with the data from BLS.gov, since you have to account for benefits and a lot of the overhead, plus, they're looking for senior people, after all.
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current...
You should start reading comments.
Pretty much the same comment was posted by somebody else about three and a half hours ago.
If I had to chose between reading an on-topic comment with spelling mistakes or a gramatically flawless off-topic comment that just repeats what somebody else already said, I'd chose the former.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Nobody says you have to work on it for that length of time.
If you can get it done in one day, it's $3500 per day.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Not quite : public domain is not entirely open source and doesn't have quite the same list of positive points.
Not least, public domain works can be taken and used without attribution. If you're a software developer in a gig economy, your reputation matters.
And as you qualify : public domain in the USA.
And while the "PERMISSIVE LICENSING!!!" crowd will jump on me for this, there are advantages to copyleft licensing that you can't have if the work is in public domain, because these licenses require copyright to have force.
For example, software designed for interoperability is probably best licensed GPL or LGPL (to allow closed software to link to it), because this prevents one company making it's own "extensions" to it, thus rendering everyone else's implementation inferior. If you were a large player you could then exploit network effects to make your product the de-facto standard, eliminating the benefits of having interoperability in the first place. Copyleft licensing ensures that such improvements are available to everyone.
I've not heard of a sport which grades consumers. You probably meant consumer-grade sports. You also probably didn't mean to have the wor
This browser likes to make the on-screen keyboard disappear as I type, meaning the "submit" button is suddenly where the "d" key was 3ms earlier.
Along with your confusion about adjectives, how exactly does one spectate IN?
If you're going to lecture someone about proper English, please kindly use proper English to do so.
Someone's gonna get fired.
Ires and Scotts? WTF Scotts is a brand of porrige oats. The Scots on the other hand are a proud nation etc.etc. Ires .. thata's a new one on me.
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
>> federal government software developed in-house...so that it can continue to benefit American people and other branches of governments
Funniest thing I read all day. When's the last time a branch of government said "we want to adapt that other branch's software"? What we get instead is "we need a $2.5B XXX system, and it all has to be custom built because we're unique and awesome."
That sounds more sensible. $3500 only pays for something like 2-3 days though for a competent and senior engineer, so these should probably be called "tiny" projects.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
To fix it I will only charge another $3499. Lather, rinse, repeat.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
There's no such thing as a free market, or a Free Market either.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I don't speak English I speak American. So stop kvetching, chill man and grab a taco or perogie at a drive through. Until then, hasta la vista.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I mean, say what you will about the tenants of National Socialism, at least they pay their rent on time.
How about integrity? How about sanctity? How about treason the law? How about the fourth amendment?.
Hey asshole lawyers here, they give a shit about the bottom line looks like you just lost...
As for me, military style.
Obamas' cotton candy basically romulan that
And what about this weed I gotta smoke until I die?
How about wanting to to the right thing? How about facing the fear of execution for life because you fucked up once? How about that cabbie?
What do they want? That's over their head. What do I want? Are you a fool?
Contractors used to get prosecuted for intentionally subverting regulations to avoid oversight.
Times certainly have changed.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Nobody said anything about selection. Go fuck your strawman (sorry, strawperson) and burn it - not necessarily in that order.
No it doesn't.
Do you claim that the NBA (and NFL) selects based on epicanthic folds?
Why are you saying things you don't believe? Nutbag.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."