The General Services Administration‘s 18F unit has introduced an online micro-purchase platform for open-source code developers to bid on various projects at the digital services organization.
V. David Zvenyach and Alla Goldman Seiffert wrote in a post published Thursday that 18F will initially post a batch of reverse auction opportunities on the marketplace to buy new codes or features for the group’s Tock time-tracking software.
Vendors can submit bids that range between $1 and $3500, Zvenyach and Seiffert noted.
The 18F team implemented the platform after it conducted a federal acquisition experiment in efforts to determine whether the micro-purchase strategy can help attract small businesses and nonconventional contractors.
The experiment’s winner Brendan Sudol, a Simon Data software engineer, bid $1 to provide a source code designed to move data from GSA’s Schedule 70 contracting tool into the online Contract-Awarded Labor Category portal.