Page 42 - FCW, September/October 2019
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TheLectern
“We chose the name Oddball because we felt it helped us stand out from the crowd and because we do things differently. “
—TRAVIS SORENSEN, ODDBALL
federal marketplace, sharing infor- mation about navigating an unfamil- iar space and helping to expand the nontraditional segment of the market. “If we grow the pie bigger for all of us, that not only benefits us as companies, but also taxpayers and users,” he said.
The coalition recently announced some changes. The members have elected a new board of directors with representatives from five firms, and they are opening the organization to new members, though they are pro- ceeding cautiously. Each of the existing 16 members will be allowed to nomi- nate one new member for the next year. As part of their applications, prospective members must provide two examples of digital projects the company has worked on and refer- ences from government customers, though the organization makes excep- tions for special circumstances such as companies doing classified work. Sharing code signifies the openness and transparency the civic technol- ogy community embraces.
What struck me most about the membership application materials is how much the organization wants to
guard itself against being taken over by companies that don’t share the found- ing firms’ ideals.
“At the beginning, we sat down and talked about what was important and why it should exist, and some mem- bers did say we see this as a marketing tool,” Rasmussen said. “But the major- ity came right back and said this can’t be about our own self-interest. So I think we came to sort of an alignment before the inception that values come first, before growth. If there’s a market- ing benefit to this, it has to be totally unintentional...a byproduct. And I think we all aligned on that early.”
A rigorous review process
A surprising amount of my conver- sation with Rasmussen dealt with the steps the coalition has taken to protect itself from what we might call traditional contracting wolves in nontraditional clothing. The member- ship review process is rigorous. An onboarding committee checks all appli- cant references, reviews companies’ GitHub repositories to judge whether their work supports the public good and evaluates the quality of the code.
“We see ourselves as a bit similar to an organic product certification and want to make sure the certification has some value,” Rasmussen said.
The committee also interviews each company’s chief executive in part to prevent firms from gaining access by offering existing members some sort of quid pro quo, such as a large tradi- tional contractor promising work on one of its contracts.
In addition, the coalition requires an unusual level of involvement by its members. Most industry associa- tions require nothing of members beyond paying dues, though some members choose to attend meetings and events or become association leaders. At the coalition, each appli- cant is required to choose two ways the company will support coalition priorities in outward-facing activities over the next year, including the met- rics it will use to measure the success of those efforts. The organization also requires each firm to be represented at the coalition’s quarterly membership meetings. If a member firm misses two meetings in a row, it can be kicked out.
Of the current members, Rasmussen
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