IP: Pentagon Fishes for Good Ideas to Thwart Terror

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
> To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> Pentagon Fishes for Good Ideas to Thwart Terror
> By Jim Wolf
>
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon (news - web sites) cast a wide net on
> Thursday for bright ideas on thwarting terrorism, seeking to pick the brains
> of just about everyone from tinkerers in their garages to big corporations
> worldwide.
>
> The Defense Department said it was seeking help in ''defeating difficult
> targets, conducting protracted operations in remote areas and developing
> countermeasures to weapons of mass destruction.''
>
> The goal is to find concepts that could be developed and fielded in 12 to 18
> months, much faster than normal Pentagon purchasing and deployment
> timetables.
>
> U.S. officials from President Bush (news - web sites) down have said they
> fear more terrorist attacks after the Sept. 11 hijack attacks that killed
> more than 5,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on a
> crashed flight in Pennsylvania.
>
> Laying out an unusually straightforward, three-step process for entering the
> competition, the Pentagon called for one-page concept descriptions by Dec.
> 23. Those retained will be asked to provide up to 12 pages of details in a
> second phase.
>
> The department then would invite those with the most promising ideas to
> submit full proposals ``that may form the basis for a contract,'' the
> statement said.
>
> ``We're open to ideas from just about everybody,'' added Glenn Flood, a
> Pentagon spokesman. More information on the process has been posted at
> http://www.bids.tswg.gov.
>
> Jacques Gansler, who served as the Pentagon's acquisition chief under former
> President Bill Clinton, said similar approaches had worked well for the
> Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's chief research and
> development arm.
>
> ``The beauty of it is you can get a broad range of people thinking out of
> the box,'' he said. ``Often you'll get ideas from inventors'' as well as
> from big defense contractors.
>
> Generally, the Defense Department spells out, often in excruciating detail,
> what it wants to buy when it solicits bids for a project.
>
> In throwing a competition wide open without spelling out what it had in
> mind, the Defense Department was hoping to unleash creative solutions to old
> problems typically handled in less innovative ways, he said.
>
> ``They're saying, 'I've got a problem. Help me solve it','' said Gansler,
> now at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs.
>
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011025/ts/attack_pentagon_ideas_dc_2.html
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> geoff.goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
> "success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html


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