The US(S) Challenger

The Gov 2.0 summit this week ushered in a new website called Challenge.gov, a resource for crowdsourcing solutions to national problems and facilitating communication between the public and its government.  Though this sounds like the kind of project that would offer results not dissimilar from your average YouTube comments section, the site currently offers 36 challenges that address or are issued from 20 different agencies.

And what exactly is a “challenge,” you might ask? Don’t look to the “About” section for answers: “A challenge is exactly what the name suggests: it is a challenge by one party (a ‘seeker’) to a third party or parties (a ‘solver’).” Whatever they are, challenges often offer cash and other prizes for the winner. Who knew that participating in a government derived from the people could be so much fun?