Can we get better government through game mechanics? We are about to find out. Today, ChallengePost was named the official online "challenge platform" of the U.S. federal government. Any government agency that wants to run a challenge to get ideas from citizens can use ChallengePost as a way to gather ideas and even offer cash prizes for the best ideas. ChallengePost ran the NYC Big Apps contest and Michelle Obama's Apps for Healthy Kids challenge. Many of these challenges revolve around tapping into government data in creative ways or creating software with some sort of civic benefit.