SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Challenges and Prizes - Challenges and Prizes RFI
- Notice Date
- 7/16/2010
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541810
— Advertising Agencies
- Contracting Office
- General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), ITS Office of Acquisition Operations (QTA), 10304 Eaton Place, 4B19, Fairfax, Virginia, 22030, United States
- ZIP Code
- 22030
- Solicitation Number
- 7QSA-Challenges_Prizes
- Point of Contact
- Carmen Calloway,
- E-Mail Address
-
carmen.calloway@gsa.gov
(carmen.calloway@gsa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Challenges and Prizes Info Request for Information: Products and Services for Challenges and Prizes 1.0 Background The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has been directed to provide access to qualified contractors who can assist federal government agencies in identifying, designing, and implementing challenges and prizes to promote open government, innovation, and other national priorities. On March 8, 2010 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES M-10-11Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government, which affirms the Obama Administration's commitment to expand agencies' use of prizes and challenges and provides agencies with a preliminary policy and legal framework for doing so. Among other things, the OMB memorandum states: Additionally, the General Services Administration (GSA) will develop, as expeditiously as possible, a contract vehicle to provide agency access to relevant products and services, including technical assistance in structuring and conducting contests to take maximum benefit of the marketplace as they identify and pursue contest initiatives to further the policy objectives of the Federal Government. As the ecosystem of vendors that provide products and services for challenges and prizes is relatively new and quickly changing, GSA has determined that a Request for Information (RFI) is needed to supplement its extensive market research, seek feedback on planned acquisition approaches, and announce an Industry Day. GSA's planned acquisition approach at this time is to: •Identify vendors already on GSA schedule who have past experience providing the capabilities needed for agencies to identify, design, and run challenges and prizes; •Assist vendors with challenge and prize experience who are not yet on GSA schedule with information on how to get on GSA schedule; •Encourage teaming and subcontracting between GSA Schedule contractors without complete capabilities and vendors with challenge expertise and capabilities who are not yet on GSA schedule; and •Determine the potential for future multiple award contracts or other acquisition strategies. 2.0 Introduction to Challenges and Prizes The Obama Administration recognizes the promise of prizes and challenges to spur innovation, tap the expertise of the American people, and bring the top talent and best ideas to bear on our nation's most pressing problems. In his September 2009 Strategy for American Innovation, the President called on agencies to increase their ability to promote and harness innovation by using tools such as prizes and challenges to solve tough problems. In March 2010, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum to all heads of the Executive Departments and Agencies affirming the Administration's commitment and providing a policy and legal framework to guide agencies in utilizing prizes to stimulate innovation to advance their core mission. In April 2010, the White House and the Case Foundation convened some of the world's top experts in prize competitions to share private sector success stories with nearly 200 policymakers from more than 35 agencies across the Executive Branch. The March 2010 OMB Guidance outlines the nature of the Administration's interest in prizes and challenges. There are four important points for the purposes of this RFI: •Impact: The Administration is committed to identifying high-impact prizes that best leverage the potential benefits of prizes and challenges, including enabling government to: 1) establish an important goal without having to choose the team or approach that is most likely to succeed, 2) pay only for results, 3) increase the number and diversity of the individuals, organization, and teams that are addressing a particular problem or challenge, 4) stimulate private sector investment that is many times greater than the cash value of the prize, and 5) capture the public imagination and change the public's and the government's perception of what is possible. •Types: The Administration is interested in the full spectrum of prize types from "point solution prizes" that reward and spur development for solutions to a well defined problem; to "exposition prizes" that identify promising ideas and practices that may not otherwise get attention; to "participation prizes" that motivate behavior change and skill development by the contestants. Federal agencies are exploring challenges and prizes that will result in promising ideas and practices, product innovations or improvements, process improvements, increased awareness and participation, and new or strengthened networks. •Policy Areas: The Administration sees potential to reap the benefits of prizes in a broad set of policy areas, from space exploration, science, and technology to education, workforce development, and nutrition. Every federal agency has been encouraged to consider the role of prizes and challenges to drive innovation and their core mission. •Size of Prize: The Administration believes high-impact challenges need not feature a high dollar prize purse. Therefore, agencies are encouraged to explore prizes and challenges as tools to spur innovations large (e.g. NASA Centennial Challenges, Energy's L Prize to Change the Lighting Landscape) and small (e.g. Apps for Health Kids, Department of Labor Career Videos Challenge). 3.0 Government Requirements As federal agencies increasingly use challenges and prizes, they will require streamlined access to a new set of products and professional service solutions. A.Products Through a previous competitive process, GSA provides a challenge platform to federal agencies at Challenge.gov, which agencies can use to create new challenges and showcase challenges from any platform. To implement prizes and challenges, agencies may require additional technology products such as 1) web-based challenge platforms that meet the needs of specific challenge types or targeted solver communities, or 2) bug/defect fixes and updates/upgrades in function and technology to maintain the operability and usability of the software products and technology platform. Web-based challenge platforms may require some or all, but not limited to, the following characteristics: Basics •Be provided as Software as a Service (SaaS) or hosted by an agency behind their firewall; •May require supplemental professional services as discussed in Section B below; •Include an established solver community or functionality to form a community around the challenge; •Support multiple and concurrent challenges; •Comply with federal legal and regulatory software/hardware requirements, including Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (accessibility requirements), privacy and security regulations and policy. User-Friendly & Flexible to Accommodate Distinct Prize Designs •Make it easy for government to clearly communicate the problem to be solved, the type of solutions sought, and the rules of the prize or challenge; •Enable government to post monetary, non-monetary, or no-prize challenges; •Make the type and size of prize immediately visible to potential solvers; •Make it easy for users to submit solutions to a government-sponsored prize or challenge. •Enable users to submit a range of solution types (e.g. idea, video, proof of concept, prototype) and include the following types of media in their submission: links, images, photos, videos, software applications, and other attachments; •Make it easy for a private group of judges to confidentially review, rate & rank submissions in a systematic work flow; •Make it easy to display and communicate winning solutions. Transparent & Collaborative •Enable the broader public to browse the prizes, challenges, innovative solutions, discussions, and winners without registration; •Enable users to see, discuss, refine, and evaluate solutions proposed by others; •Enable users to vote or rate others' submissions; •Include a gaming/market environment which allows participants to "invest" in submitted idea, win points and rewards for the participation, or other forms of incentives to participate; •Enable users to share challenges and proposed solutions via email, social networks, RSS, APIs, etc.; •Enable users to form teams; •Enable users to establish a visible reputation by using the site, which can then be used to weight feedback and comments; •Enable administrator to turn/off any of the transparency and collaboration features. Analytics •Detailed analytics of the ongoing engagement (e.g. number of participants, number of submissions or entries, votes and comments). B.Professional Services In order to maximize the benefits of prizes and challenges, agencies may require technical assistance from experienced individuals or companies to identify, design, or conduct challenges and prize competitions. Services may be provided separately or packaged with a technology product to provide a single overall solution. Agencies may require some or all, but not limited to, the following services: Portfolio Mapping & Prize Identification •Work with agency leadership to map policy priorities and identify the problems, questions, and needs that can best be solved through prizes and challenges; •Translate agency priorities into a set of actionable prize concepts. Challenge and Prize Design •Strategic concept development; •Identify the right prize archetype for the stated goal; •Market research, interviews, and stakeholder engagement to understand how best to structure the prize given 1) existing activity in the space, 2) number and kind of potential participants, and 3) primary motivations of contestants; •Craft the problem statement and call to action; •Recommend length of prize competition, type and size of prize purse, eligibility, submission rules, and other incentives; •Provide legal guidance on rules, such as intellectual property recommendations •Establish judging criteria; •Suggest judges and advise on public versus expert judging; •Recommend the technology platform/solver-community given the type of challenge. Prize Implementation & Administration •Develop work plan and timeline for the prize or challenge administration; •Ensure compliance with federal legal and regulatory software/hardware requirements, including Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (accessibility requirements), privacy and security regulations and policy; •Build, motivate, and nurture a problem solver community; •Conduct outreach and marketing campaigns to engage the public and commercial marketplace; •Moderate or advise on moderation; •Answer questions from potential entrants; •Review submissions for security and/or eligibility; •Provide analytics and metrics on the prize or challenge; •Evaluation and report on the challenge; •Plan and execute event to celebrate the winners; •Other aspects of daily program management and administration; •Ability to support multiple and concurrent challenges, including multiple concurrent challenges by a single agency or group of agencies. 4.0. Request for Information In addition to the current planned acquisition strategy, GSA is looking at the potential to provide future services via the Multiple Award Schedule program or other acquisition alternatives, and is seeking information from industry partners that currently hold a Schedule 70 or Schedule 541 contract, or are interested in providing such services and/or products by becoming a Schedule 70 or Schedule 541 contractor (directly or through teaming). All responses to this RFI are due not later than August 6, 2010 to Ms. Carmen Calloway. Please send your responses to Ms. Calloway at Carmen.Calloway@gsa.gov with the subject as challenges and prizes. A.Market Assessment The GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) asks that all vendors interested in providing the products and/or services outlined in this RFI provide the following information: 1.Name of Company 2.Background and Size of Company 3.Current Government Schedules (if any) 4.Description of products and/or services you offer in response to the identified need in this RFI 5.Description of the number and kind of challenges and prizes for which you have previously provided products or services of the nature outlined in this RFI 6.Description of how you provide services commercially 7.Copies of commercial or general pricelists for the services and/or products you offer 8.Any relevant information pertaining to your commercial offerings 9.Contact information NOTE: This announcement is posted for data gathering and planning purposes only and DOES NOT constitute a solicitation, and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract. The Government will not reimburse any respondent for any cost associated with information submitted in response to this RFI. Any exchanges of information shall be consistent with procurement integrity requirements (see FAR 3.104). Responses to these notices are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The responses from this RFI may be used to assist the Government in developing requirements for a future procurement. B.Feedback on Planned Acquisition Approaches 1.We are interested in your feedback on our planned acquisition approaches as laid out in Section 1.0 above. These questions are optional, but if you would like to provide your feedback, please include your thoughts in your RFI response due August 6th to Carmen.calloway@gsa.gov. For companies on schedule with experience in this area, do you think agencies are readily able to determine your experience in this area? What might make it easier for agencies to determine and purchase your products and/or services in this area? 2.For companies on schedule without experience in this area, what do you see as the benefits and disadvantages of teaming with a company with that experience? How would you find that company? Will the proposed Industry Day help you find such companies? How might the government encourage or enable teaming? 3.For companies off schedule, have you ever teamed with an on schedule company to provide services to a federal agency? If not, why not? Would you like to? If not, why not? Are there any barriers to doing so? 4.If you are not on schedule, what, if any, do you think are the biggest obstacles to getting on schedule (knowledge, desire, cost, etc)? 5.Do you have other ideas on how GSA could make it easier for agencies to acquire products and services related to identifying, designing, and implementing challenges and prizes? If you have questions related to the RFI that you would you like answered at the planned Industry Day, please send those separately to Ms. Calloway at Carmen.Calloway@gsa.gov not later than August 6th, 2010. 5.0 Industry Day - Invitation, RSVP Instructions, and Request for Questions in Advance GSA will also host an Industry Day on August 12, 2010 at the GSA Auditorium in Washington, DC. The event will provide vendors with 1) an overview of the Administration's approach to prizes and challenges, 2) information on the steps GSA will take to streamline acquisition of the best prize products and services, and 3) assistance in navigating the steps towards working with the Federal Government. The intended audience is current Schedule 70 or Schedule 541 holders with relevant experience or looking to partner with others with relevant experience, and non-schedule holders with challenge and prize expertise and experience who are interested in doing business with the federal government. If you are interested in attending this event, please register at: http://apps.fas.gsa.gov/conferences/Regform.cfm?EventID=1698&form.type=vendor&form.addresstype. Please note registration at this event is limited and will close when maximum capacity is met. The industry day will be held at the following time and location: August 12, 2010 9:00am - 1:00pm GSA Auditorium U.S. General Services Administration 1800 F Street NW Washington DC 20405 If you need more information on the Industry Day or for RSVP assistance, please contact Katie Herritage at Katie.Herritage@gsa.gov. Washington DC 20405 If you need more information on the Industry Day or for RSVP assistance, please contact Katie Herritage at Katie.Herritage@gsa.gov.
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