You're right. They're limiting themselves to the bottom of the barrel in web developers, and setting up their schedule around the standard malpractices that lea

You're right. They're limiting themselves to the bottom of the barrel in web developers, and setting up their schedule around the standard malpractices that lead to the deplorable state of the current IT systems in the first place. The idea that they can spend a month in the host city learning how things will work, and then six months designing & developing a production-ready application that's significant enough to matter is at best laughable. The only projects that succeed are going to be the ones that are too small to make an appreciable difference to anyone -- especially the government. On top of that, they're filtering out exactly the people that they need most: experienced developers and designers. Speaking for myself for example, I would not mind doing something like this in principle, but in reality I can't afford to, because I have a mortgage to pay. I'd also have to put my side business and blow off my karate students for a year. The people that they need have lives. The people that they'll get aren't qualified.