The effort is being spearheaded by the World Wide Consortium for the Grid, or W2COG, a private organization operating on a US$1.7 million budget funded by the Defense Department.

The W2COG aims to help defense and intelligence agencies meet broad, operational goals by using so-called net-centric collaborative efforts by private-sector firms and others to solve technology problems. The organization includes technical personnel from government, industry and academia.

As the military reshapes its IT infrastructure to make it more integrated and responsive, the model developed by W2COG can be used to quickly solicit new ideas, spur collaboration and improve responsiveness, said U.S. Air Force Maj. Angela Burth.

Burth is assigned to a defense command that works with various branches of the military to develop solutions to technology problems. One key problem the military faces is accessing technology that's being developed in the private sector, said Burth. "We know the technology and capability is out there," she added.

Chris Gunderson, exec-utive director of the Reston, Va.-based W2COG, said his org--anization will help by posting online the IT problems the government wants to solve and encouraging its members to collaborate on potential solutions. "We're interested in learning about business culture even more than about the technology," he said.