[bicknergseng]

18F/USDS peeps... would you consider bounty or reward style programs that reward all open source contributors? Eg instead of bidding for a contract, keep an open list of tasks/bugs/full projects and reward contributors whose PR's are merged in some way?

Yes, I know this monetizes what used to be free in a way and maybe goes against the "spirit" of open source, but practically speaking it feels like it'd be a huge win win for the open source community and small to medium sized government projects in general.

[noahkunin]

@bicknergseng -

18Fer here. The main issue here is how the Gov actually gets $ to that entity. There are lots of laws and rules that we need to obey about who we pay $ to - Gov doesn't have a ton of flexibility here. There was a reason why bidders had to be pre-registered.

That said, many of us want to continue to expand our engagement with the community. When it comes to bounty/reward style programs, the one I'm personally focused on figuring out first is a bug bounty program. Once we've figured out solutions for a bounty type program, you'll absolutely hear from us.

edited: small typo

[neltnerb]

I'm sure you've thought of this, but is it impossible to subcontract this out to a non-profit to increase flexibility in the details of how the work is done? I.e. same requirements, same constraints, but the non-profit is formally registered with GSA and handles payments to subcontractors rather than the sub getting it straight from the government?

[wslack]

18Fer here. Is this in regards to a bounty program or putting out specific microtasks?

[neltnerb]

The bounty program as a whole. Like when I worked at NREL they were government funded but on paper I think it looked like a subcontract to run the lab which was fully managed by another entity. NREL I'm sure can hire contractors, although I suppose they might have to be in GSA as well?