In August, senior government officials and private sector enjoyed a preview of Challenge.gov at the Newseum at the second annual Fedscoop forum on reducing the cost of government. Challenge.gov is already live to federal employees for exploration and contribution. The next step for the site, where the Americans are invited to share, vote and contribute ideas, is likely to happen this September, potentially as soon as next week at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, when federal CIO Vivek Kundra and U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra speak about closing the innovation gap.

In the interview below, Bev Godwin and Brandon Kessler explain what Challenge.gov is and what it might do. Godwin is director of new media and citizen engagement at U.S. General Services Administration. Kessler is the founder of ChallengePost, the platform that Challenge.gov is built upon.

ChallengePost is also the foundation for First Lady Michelle Obama's Apps For Healthy Kids contest site. As Kessler points out, that contest now has over 40,000 supporters and around 100 apps that Kessler estimated are worth over $5 million dollars, in exchange for $60k in prizes. Aggregating challenges at Challenge.gov could generate online activity, like eBay did for auctions or YouTube for video, said Kessler.

Does building Challenge.gov make sense? "It goes to the question of how visible [networks like these] are," said Dr. Jeffrey Davis, director of space life sciences at NASA. "The more networked they are, the more visibility there is. It's important to have platforms interconnected."

Another issue is whether people are aware of challenges or contest, or can find them through search. "Finding challenges is very difficult, said Dean Halstead, collaborative visualization architect for government at Microsoft Federal. If you search for 'health challenge,' you don't find much on Twitter or Google. Regardless of how much you centralize, the word won't get out. You need multiple mechanisms. Challenge.gov is just the first of many steps."

What are Challenges Useful For?

Crowdsourcing has been receiving high-level attention in D.C. in recent years as case studies in the private sector accumulate. A recent Senate hearing featured testimony on the potential of crowdsourcing and other technical innovation, like transparency and data mining to reduce fraud.

"The power of crowdsourcing a solution should never be underestimated," said Michael Donovan, chief technologist for strategic capabilities at HP Enterprise Services. "If people can start to see solutions, then a community can help and be part of the solution. It's not government or companies doing something to you - you're part of the solution that contributed to that end result. At the end of the day, you feel ownership."