4 ms·

American Energy Data Challenge

56 points by ceworthington 13y ago

kylelibra 13y ago
Getting paid for an idea? It's every MBAs dream come true!
gavingmiller 13y ago
Hijacking the topic - I'm co-founder of a startup called PetroFeed[1] that's building a GitHub-esque platform for the Oil & Gas industry. We've raised $3.1M, have 7 team members currently, and are moving out of closed beta by the end of the week. If you're a Rails dev interested in this area, I'd love to chat with you! [1] https://www.petrofeed.com/company/careers https://www.petrofeed.com/company/careers
- angersock 13y ago
  You nonironically use "#hardproblems" in your opening paragraph on that page. Go clutter up the next "Who's hiring" thread. Edit: the little robot is adorable, though.
  - gavingmiller 13y ago
    Thanks! His name is Pedro. :D
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    the staff photo is like a photo of septuplets.
    - lowkeykiwi 13y ago
      in pyjamas.
- malandrew 13y ago
  basically climate.com for oil&gas or something different?
  - gavingmiller 13y ago
    I'm not super knowledgable about climate.com, but I can tell you what we're doing. For PetroFeed we're taking various data sets (public, commercial, and private) and connecting them into a single network. From there we're looking to provide collaboration tools on top of that network.
nostromo 13y ago
First thought: omg awesome! Second thought: wait, is this just an essay contest?
powertower 13y ago
Seriously, even if no real or scalable solutions are ever provided, the government should hand out 10s of 1000s of business challenges and prizes every year... By having every government department list it's internal data and issues. Your job would be to improve the processes, and/or solve the issues. It wouldn't cost that much (the price of healthcare.gov website + a couple of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters), and would gear the nation towards entrepreneurship, a specialists workforce (not a replaceable unit workforce), and growth of startups. And it would make the gov seem more rational and human.
- ceworthington 13y ago
  Some of my Innovation Fellow colleagues at GSA are trying to do just that: making it easier for modern, small web development shops to apply for government IT contracts. Check it out: https://rfpez.sba.gov/ https://rfpez.sba.gov/
  - ammmir 13y ago
    i just signed up for RFP-EZ, looks great, except all of the existing projects seem to be links to massive FBO RFPs. hopefully more projects are submitted soon!
  - USNetizen 13y ago
    I'm getting a ton of errors trying to register for RFPEZ. Everything from timeouts to 500 server errors. Feels like the Healthcare.gov issue all over again. Also, why would one need to "provide a link to an image of your best work"? That seems very contrary to the point of procurement - especially given that so little of the opportunities are for actual design work. Furthermore, how does one link to work performed on an intranet, etc. (as most government work is)? Seems like it needs to be thought out a little better. Is the "best work" link part of the selection criteria? How does this work with FAR requirements or simplify the RFP/RFQ process?
    - ceworthington 13y ago
      Hey USNetizen: want to email rfpez@gsa.gov with some of your issues? The team is good, but very small and I know they would love your feedback.
ceworthington 13y ago
This is the first of four contests that will run throughout the coming year. Contest #2, scheduled for Jan - March, is going to ask for functioning apps / prototypes that address an idea surfaced in part #1 (with larger prizes). Contest #3 will be a design and visualization challenge. The goal was to engage a broad community (read: MBAs :-) ... but also energy professionals/researchers that can't necessarily code). But we're hoping to fire up the dev/designer community in Contests #2-4. We've already seen some awesome ideas submitted, so we're hoping this model works well. Source: I'm currently an Innovation Fellow detailed to the Department of Energy working on Open Data. Hope you all submit an idea!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- ceworthington 13y ago
  Thanks for reporting. I think this should be fixed, if you want to try again.
  - AsymetricCom 13y ago
    Looks like a problem on my side. Thanks anyway.
smithzvk 13y ago
I like how a 24 character password is automatically insecure, while a 16 character one is not... dumb password validation...
- ceworthington 13y ago
  Yeah, sorry about that. You have to pick your battles in gov IT.
jsnk 13y ago
"The Contest is open only to: (a) citizens or permanent residents of the United States" If you are a foreign hacker in US on TN or H1B or something like that, don't bother.
- evadne 13y ago
  > and (b) private entities, such as corporations or other organizations, that are incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States. That’s not hard.
Ixiaus 13y ago
The company I work for, http://energycurb.com http://energycurb.com, has a home energy analytics product that might be able to compete in this. We aren't doing anything with public data but this is giving me some good ideas.
jebblue 13y ago
Nice idea but the pay isn't high enough to get my ideas.
mrcactu5 13y ago
interesting older guy in the youtube video

56 points by ceworthington 13y ago

Getting paid for an idea? It's every MBAs dream come true!

Hijacking the topic - I'm co-founder of a startup called PetroFeed[1] that's building a GitHub-esque platform for the Oil & Gas industry. We've raised $3.1M, have 7 team members currently, and are moving out of closed beta by the end of the week. If you're a Rails dev interested in this area, I'd love to chat with you! [1] https://www.petrofeed.com/company/careers https://www.petrofeed.com/company/careers

angersock 13y ago
You nonironically use "#hardproblems" in your opening paragraph on that page. Go clutter up the next "Who's hiring" thread. Edit: the little robot is adorable, though.
- gavingmiller 13y ago
  Thanks! His name is Pedro. :D
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  the staff photo is like a photo of septuplets.
  - lowkeykiwi 13y ago
    in pyjamas.
malandrew 13y ago
basically climate.com for oil&gas or something different?
- gavingmiller 13y ago
  I'm not super knowledgable about climate.com, but I can tell you what we're doing. For PetroFeed we're taking various data sets (public, commercial, and private) and connecting them into a single network. From there we're looking to provide collaboration tools on top of that network.

nostromo 13y ago

First thought: omg awesome! Second thought: wait, is this just an essay contest?

powertower 13y ago

Seriously, even if no real or scalable solutions are ever provided, the government should hand out 10s of 1000s of business challenges and prizes every year... By having every government department list it's internal data and issues. Your job would be to improve the processes, and/or solve the issues. It wouldn't cost that much (the price of healthcare.gov website + a couple of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters), and would gear the nation towards entrepreneurship, a specialists workforce (not a replaceable unit workforce), and growth of startups. And it would make the gov seem more rational and human.

ceworthington 13y ago
Some of my Innovation Fellow colleagues at GSA are trying to do just that: making it easier for modern, small web development shops to apply for government IT contracts. Check it out: https://rfpez.sba.gov/ https://rfpez.sba.gov/
- ammmir 13y ago
  i just signed up for RFP-EZ, looks great, except all of the existing projects seem to be links to massive FBO RFPs. hopefully more projects are submitted soon!
- USNetizen 13y ago
  I'm getting a ton of errors trying to register for RFPEZ. Everything from timeouts to 500 server errors. Feels like the Healthcare.gov issue all over again. Also, why would one need to "provide a link to an image of your best work"? That seems very contrary to the point of procurement - especially given that so little of the opportunities are for actual design work. Furthermore, how does one link to work performed on an intranet, etc. (as most government work is)? Seems like it needs to be thought out a little better. Is the "best work" link part of the selection criteria? How does this work with FAR requirements or simplify the RFP/RFQ process?
  - ceworthington 13y ago
    Hey USNetizen: want to email rfpez@gsa.gov with some of your issues? The team is good, but very small and I know they would love your feedback.

ceworthington 13y ago

This is the first of four contests that will run throughout the coming year. Contest #2, scheduled for Jan - March, is going to ask for functioning apps / prototypes that address an idea surfaced in part #1 (with larger prizes). Contest #3 will be a design and visualization challenge. The goal was to engage a broad community (read: MBAs :-) ... but also energy professionals/researchers that can't necessarily code). But we're hoping to fire up the dev/designer community in Contests #2-4. We've already seen some awesome ideas submitted, so we're hoping this model works well. Source: I'm currently an Innovation Fellow detailed to the Department of Energy working on Open Data. Hope you all submit an idea!

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

ceworthington 13y ago
Thanks for reporting. I think this should be fixed, if you want to try again.
- AsymetricCom 13y ago
  Looks like a problem on my side. Thanks anyway.

smithzvk 13y ago

I like how a 24 character password is automatically insecure, while a 16 character one is not... dumb password validation...

ceworthington 13y ago
Yeah, sorry about that. You have to pick your battles in gov IT.

jsnk 13y ago

"The Contest is open only to: (a) citizens or permanent residents of the United States" If you are a foreign hacker in US on TN or H1B or something like that, don't bother.

evadne 13y ago
> and (b) private entities, such as corporations or other organizations, that are incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States. That’s not hard.

Ixiaus 13y ago

The company I work for, http://energycurb.com http://energycurb.com, has a home energy analytics product that might be able to compete in this. We aren't doing anything with public data but this is giving me some good ideas.

jebblue 13y ago

Nice idea but the pay isn't high enough to get my ideas.

mrcactu5 13y ago

interesting older guy in the youtube video