SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- RESEARCH SERVICES
- Notice Date
- 8/7/2003
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Procurement and Property Management, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Room 1830, Washington, DC, 20212
- ZIP Code
- 20212
- Solicitation Number
- BLS-03-27
- Response Due
- 8/22/2003
- Archive Date
- 9/6/2003
- Point of Contact
- Etihun Hailemichael, Purchasing Agent, Phone 202-691-6044, Fax 202-691-6026, - Kevin Brown, Purchasing Agent, Phone 202-691-6048, Fax 202-691-6026,
- E-Mail Address
-
Hailemichael_E@bls.gov, Brown_Kevin@bls.govgov
- Description
- This is a solicitation for services. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation is being issued as a Request For Quotation (RFQ) # BLS-03-27 in accordance with FAR Part 13, NTE $50,000.00 Description of Services Needed Services are needed to investigate clustering techniques and develop tools for improving BLS website usability. This is a continuation of the work completed under PO B9J21144. This phase of the project will focus on the creation of a set of indexes for BLS vocabularies that will represent 'official' terminology used in reports, releases, data sets, and research papers. The proposed period of service is September 1, 2003-August 31, 2004. Statement of Work Clustering Techniques and Tools for Improving BLS Website Usability Scope of Work This work shall investigate a series of statistical clustering techniques to discover logical categories for organizing the tens of thousands of webpages on the BLS website. In addition to testing different techniques, a suite of computational tools shall be developed that BLS can use to conduct its own analyses over time as the website continues to evolve. Objectives of Work 1. To improve how people find information on the BLS website. 2. To develop automatic techniques that BLS can use to improve indexing for the BLS website. 3. To apply these techniques to alternative indexes for the BLS website, both to the existing alternative indexes (A-Z, home page organization, etc.) and new ones. 4. To evaluate the effectiveness of these new indexes with respect to existing BLS search and browse services. 5. To develop a set of computational tools that BLS can apply for future iterations of its data collection. Tasks The results of this work should provide support for the following tasks: ? Improve the organization of existing indexing schemes; ? Identification of ?areas of usage? within the agency of important terms, based on program, type of document, or purpose of document; ? Identification of collocations and phrases for inclusion in a glossary, thesaurus, index, table of contents, or other vocabulary-based resource; ? Creation and maintenance of alternative user interfaces; ? Help individual program areas within BLS to better customize their information dissemination services; and ? Application to content management and email management services throughout BLS offices. Deliverables 1. A prototype statistical tool kit that accepts BLS webpage documents (HTML, PDF, ASCII), computes alternative representation parameter settings (e.g., stemming, collocation, stop lists), computes term weights (e.g., term frequency X inverse document frequency), produces term-document matrices, and provides alternative dimensionality reduction (e.g., principal component projections) and clustering algorithms (e.g., k-means). 2. Candidate index terms and candidate glossary entries, drawn from different automatic categorizations computed using the tool kit. 3. Automatic classifications of all BLS webpages into the different categorizations. 4. Suggested user interface designs that present these alternative indexes. 5. Final report and recommendations for BLS website evolution. Inspection and Acceptance Final inspection and acceptance of all items called for in the project will be made by the COTR associated with the project. Period of Work: September 1, 2003-August 31, 2004 Confidentiality and Security Requirements a. The work specified in this contract shall be done exclusively using non-confidential BLS data. At no point under this contract shall the contractor?s employees or agents have access to any confidential information. b. For the purposes of this contract, "confidential information" includes: (1) Individually identifiable data. Any representation of information that permits the identity of participants in BLS statistical programs to be reasonably inferred by either direct or indirect means. (2) Pre-release economic data. Statistics and analyses that have not yet been cleared for release (that is, have not yet been officially released to the public), including but not limited to those that have a set date and time of release before which they must not be divulged. (3) Embargoed data. Pre-release economic series data for the Principal Federal Economic Indicators produced by the BLS. Currently, the following BLS data series have been designated by the Office of Management and Budget as Principal Federal Economic Indicators: the Consumer Price Index, Employment Situation, Employment Cost Index, Producer Price Indexes, Productivity and Costs, Real Earnings, and U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes. c. If the Contractor fails to comply with the requirements contained in these clauses, the Contractor shall be deemed to have failed to perform the provision of this contract within the meaning of the default clauses and the contract shall be subject to termination for default. BLS AGENT AGREEMENT PURPOSE. The purpose of this Agreement is to inform persons who may have access to confidential Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records of their responsibility for complying with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act and other applicable Federal laws and with the confidentiality policies of the BLS. BACKGROUND. The BLS of the Department of Labor is the Government's principal fact-finding agency in the field of labor economics. The majority of the data collected by the BLS are provided on a voluntary basis by respondents who have agreed to provide the information for the purpose(s) specified by the BLS. A violation of the confidence that respondents place in the BLS would endanger the ability of the BLS to carry out its duties. Confidential information includes all names, addresses, and other information for units in BLS samples, all identifiable respondent submissions, and any other information in any medium and format that would reasonably disclose the identity by either direct or indirect means of any participant in a statistical program conducted under the auspices of the BLS. The Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) of 2002 (Title V of Public Law 107-347) requires that information acquired by the BLS under a pledge of confidentiality for exclusively statistical purposes shall be used by BLS officers, employees, and agents for statistical purposes only. CIPSEA further authorizes the BLS to designate individuals who are self-employed researchers, consultants, contractors, and the employees of contractors, with whom contracts or other appropriate agreements are executed, as agents to perform exclusively statistical activities under the control of the BLS. All designated agents are subject to the fines and penalties under Section 513 of CIPSEA for any willful and knowing disclosure of confidential information. Further, the BLS confidentiality policy is stated in Commissioner's Order 3-93, dated August 18, 1993, entitled, "Confidential Nature of BLS Records." This document states that, in conformance with existing law and Departmental policies, data collected or maintained by, or under the auspices of, BLS under a pledge of confidentiality shall be treated in a manner that will assure that individually-identifiable data will be used only for statistical purposes and will be accessible only to authorized persons. Further, pre-release economic series data prepared for release to the public shall not be disclosed or used in an unauthorized manner before their official date and time of release, and shall be accessible only to authorized persons. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING OF RESPONSIBILITY AND AGREEMENT TO COMPLY WITH FEDERAL LAW AND OBSERVE BLS CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY I have read the statement above, the ?Confidential Information Protection? provisions of CIPSEA, and Commissioner's Order 3-93, and I agree to comply with Federal law and BLS confidentiality policy. I agree not to disclose any BLS confidential respondent identifying information to any unauthorized person. Further, I understand that it is my responsibility not to disclose BLS confidential pre-release information to any unauthorized person prior to its official publication, issuance, or release. I fully understand that the unauthorized use or disclosure of such information may result in disciplinary or other legal actions. Interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement by submitting quotations. All quotes received within fifteen (15) days after the publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. The purchasing activity is not responsible for locating or securing any information which is not identified in the quotation and reasonably available to the purchasing activity. All Quotes shall be submitted to Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 1830, 2 Massachusetts Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20212 no later 3:00 p.m. EDT, --August 22, 2003, and be clearly marked with RFQ # BLS-03-27. If your response is not received by the date/time and at the location specified in the announcement, it will not be considered. No hand carried quotes will be accepted. Offerors may download the RFQ by accessing the FedBizOpps (FBO) website at http://www.fedbizopps.gov. All future information about this acquisition, including solicitation amendments, will also be distributed through the FBO site. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the FBO site to ensure that they have the most up-to-date information about this acquisition. Fax proposals are encouraged and must state name, address and solicitation number. An original copy of the proposal shall follow by mail. Quotations may also be submitted electronically provided that all the necessary documentation requested in this RFQ is included.
- Place of Performance
- Address: DEPARTMENET OF LABOR, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, 2 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. NE ROOM 1830, WASHINGTON, DC
- Zip Code: 20212
- Country: US
- Zip Code: 20212
- Record
- SN00394772-W 20030809/030807213342 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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