By Adam Tarsi, Chief of Staff, Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office
When operators in the field have a problem, they want a solution—now. And what if the solution already exists? What if, among the thousands of men and women who make up the DoD and federal workforce, someone has already solved the problem? That brilliant idea is like a needle in a haystack. We want to create a way for that brilliant idea to be found by the operators who need it. Instead of allowing that vast workforce to be a limitation, we want to leverage it, to see it not merely as a workforce, but as thousands of problem solvers.
On October 8, 2015, The Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) launched the Laboratory Innovation Crowdsourcing (LINC) portal to present operational challenges to the entire body of government employees – military, civilian, and contractor – for solutions.
CTTSO is a DoD-hosted, interagency-focused office working to develop novel solutions to combat terrorism on behalf of the Armed Forces and U.S. federal, state, and local operators.
For almost 30 years, CTTSO has worked with individual operators from our armed forces, intelligence, first responder, and federal agent communities to fill capability gaps in their fight against terrorism. Once needs are identified, the operational community prioritizes them for resolution. CTTSO illuminates solutions and uses its budget, as well as stakeholder contributions, to develop and deliver capabilities to the men and women in the field as rapidly as possible.
In addition to traditional instruments like a broad agency announcement, CTTSO uses innovative approaches to gain solutions from non-traditional providers. CTTSO has sponsored strategic investments to venture-backed startups through In-Q-Tel, crowdsourced ideas via Innocentive and Challenge.gov, and provided contracts and prize money through the Global Security Challenge and MIT Enterprise Forum.
Now we’re focusing our attention on the innovators in our own backyard. The LINC portal is a conduit for field operators to submit their operational challenges to solvers in the federal government. LINC operates just like other open innovation or crowdsourcing models and targets those who already exhibit a passion for supporting the United States and its citizens. CTTSO will take the gaps prioritized by our customers and pose them in the form of challenges to our government labs.
CTTSO will pay to host and there is no cost to run a challenge. We have launched three challenges:
- An Algorithm to Identify Material Mixtures from Raman Spectra
- Detection of Underground Voids and Tactical Tunnels
- Countering Violent Extremism
Now, what we need from you: In order to properly crowdsource solutions CTTSO needs a crowd. A crowd from across the entire federal government – SETA contractors, scientists, contract specialists, logisticians, administrative support–everyone. Every employee is a genius in some way and LINC is an opportunity to allow all individuals to directly contribute.
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from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1VPPzyi
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