18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
layout: post
tumblr_url: http://18fblog.tumblr.com/post/81293178801/announcing-fbopen-government-opportunities-made-easier
date: '2014-03-31T11:02:00-04:00'
title: "Announcing FBOpen: Government opportunities made easier"
description: "Today we're announcing our first product launch: FBOpen, a set of open-source tools to help small businesses search for opportunities to work with the U.S. government."
excerpt: "Today we're announcing our first product launch: FBOpen, a set of open-source tools to help small businesses search for opportunities to work with the U.S. government."
image: 
authors:
- alison
tags:
- api
- procurement
- fbopen
- acquisition services
---

Today we're announcing our first product launch:
[FBOpen](https://fbopen.gsa.gov/), a set of open-source tools to help
small businesses search for opportunities to work with the U.S.
government.

On the surface, [fbopen.gsa.gov](https://fbopen.gsa.gov/) is a simple,
Google-style page where you can search available federal contracts and
grants. We’ve used the latest in search technology to make finding
opportunities easier and more effective for everybody.

FBOpen is more than a search website, however. For those who want to dig
deeper, FBOpen is also an API (documented at
<http://docs.fbopen.apiary.io>) that you can use to build custom query
pages and analysis tools. Additionally, the codebase is open-source and
available at [our GitHub repository](https://github.com/18f/fbopen), so
you can build your own FBOpen server, customize your own version of the
API, add your own opportunity listings — the sky's the limit.

We have big plans for FBOpen. First and foremost, we’ll be adding more
types of opportunities to FBOpen to make it an even more useful resource
for small businesses. Soon, we'll also be releasing our FBOpen widget
maker so you can add FBOpen queries to any web page simply by pasting a
small snippet of code. And of course there are lots of new search
features in the pipeline, including the ability to subscribe to queries,
so you can be notified automatically when new opportunities arise that
match your interests.

Like most 18F projects, FBOpen is a collaboration. FBOpen was inspired
by the targeted marketing that [RFP-EZ](http://rfpez.sba.gov) so
successfully piloted, and it was developed hand-in-hand with the
[Integrated Award Environment](http://www.gsa.gov/iae) team, the GSA
CIO, and the [api.data.gov](http://api.data.gov) team, all of whom
helped make this project a model for rapid development and deployment.

In future posts we'll talk about how FBOpen works, where the data comes
from, and how it fits into 18F's vision of procurement as a service. Get
in touch with the FBOpen team on Twitter at
[@fbopen](https://twitter.com/fbopen) or, of course, at
[github](https://github.com/18f/fbopen).