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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 20, 2008 FBO #2398
DOCUMENT

D -- RFI: Enhancing EPA Search Capabilities - RFI: EPA Search Capabilities

Notice Date

6/18/2008
 

Notice Type

RFI: EPA Search Capabilities
 

NAICS

541512 — Computer Systems Design Services
 

Contracting Office

Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Acquisition Management, EPA/Headquarters, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., 3801R, Washington, District of Columbia, 20460
 

ZIP Code

20460
 

Solicitation Number

RFI-HQ-08-LJ-0618
 

Archive Date

8/2/2008
 

Point of Contact

Sini Jacob,, Phone: 2025643054
 

E-Mail Address

jacob.sini@epa.gov
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Request for Information: Enhancing EPA Search Capabilities Instructions Responses to this RFI should provide descriptive information on existing or near-term solutions that may address all or part of the Agency's requirements for enhancing search capabilities as outlined above. This may include product literature on existing software or services capabilities as well as succinct narrative statements that describe innovative solutions utilizing new or existing technological capabilities. All responses should be provided in writing, either as Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word documents, and responses should be limited to 10 pages in length. RFI Guidelines Please note that this synopsis is for INFORMATION and PLANNING purposes only and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP). Responses to the RFI cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract nor will the Government pay for the information solicited or recognize any costs associated with the submission of the RFI. The purpose of the RFI is to provide an opportunity for industry to enhance the success of any future procurement for these products and to promote open competition. Any information obtained as a result of this RFI is intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis for program planning and acquisition strategy development. Providing data/information that is limited or restricted for use by the Government for that purpose would be of very little value and such restricted/limited data/information is not solicited. By submitting information in response to this RFI, submitters of such information impliedly consent to the release and dissemination of submitted information to any Government or non-Government entity to which WHS releases and disseminate the information for review. As such, to the extent that any information submitted in response to this RFI is marked as or construed to be proprietary or business-sensitive, submitters are hereby notified (a) about the potentiality that such information may be disclosed to third parties and (b) that submission of information in response to this RFI constitutes consent to such handling and disclosure of submitted information. This RFI is being used to obtain information for planning purposes only and the Government does not presently intend to award a contract at this time. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This RFI is subject to FAR 52.215-3. Vendors are requested to send materials only in relation to the query of this RFI and not in response to a sources sought notice. Closing Date: July 19, 2008 5:00PM ET Information is to be submitted to: nationaldialogue@epa.gov The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sponsoring a National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information (http://www.epa.gov/nationaldialogue/) which includes market research on planned and existing search technologies and advanced data management and preparation practices. EPA seeks input from the vendor community on available and near term solutions related to the focus areas established in this RFI. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s Mission The Agency’s mission to protect the environment and human health is shared by numerous other organizations at different levels of government, as well as nongovernmental and private institutions. As a part of our ongoing efforts focused on enhancing access to environmental information, we are continually evaluating ways to leverage technology to improve access. This must be done within the operational context of the multiple partners EPA engages with. New advances in search capabilities and advanced data management techniques offer strategic opportunities EPA and its partners can leverage to pursue mission effectiveness. Enhanced Environmental Information Search Capabilities Scope Environmental information is managed in multiple ways in the digital age including traditional relational databases, geographic information systems, web pages on the internet and intranets, on line libraries and document and/or content management systems. As EPA designs a path forward for holistic enterprise search, it is including all information, structured, semi structured and unstructured in it scope. Immediate Focus Areas: Geographic and Temporal EPA is requesting information that will assist in a thorough evaluation of technologies that enable search, initially in terms of geographic and temporal reference and ultimately with respect to the actual meaning of information in a semantic context. We recognize that technologies related to the Semantic Web offer promise in this area, and that much work needs to be done at EPA and by our many partners in developing and applying vocabularies and ontologies that describe our vast information holdings. However, short term opportunities exist for improving access to our information, including geographic and temporal query enhancements to our current search capabilities. Nearly every piece of information that has ever been collected by EPA is relevant to a specific geographic area. At this point in time, we do not have enterprise tools in place to allow consumers of our information to take advantage of this geographic context when searching for our information. Yet, the recent explosion in the availability of consumer oriented tools for spatial exploration of both structured and unstructured, as well as search patterns evident from popular search engines, suggest that the time is ripe for facilitating place-based discovery through provision of spatial indexes to all EPA information. For example, EPA would like to enable queries that help users understand where a set of data was collected (as opposed to where the information was published or the location where the data are held). Likewise, the temporal dimension of search is a key area for EPA to consider in its efforts towards providing better access to environmental information. EPA’s mission requires the ability to access information over time, in order to paint a picture of trends and quickly locate information for project and other needs. Popular web search algorithms are largely driven by the notion that hyperlinks among pages convey a sense of the authority of the results on the target page. Such algorithms do not explicitly consider the temporal dimension of information about the target (e.g., when data was collected or when a study was published). In this sense, publication time could be relevant to either the actual collection / creation date of the information itself from the EPA Program or Region that is responsible for the data, or it could also convey information about the “freshness” of the content based on the web publishing date. As previously mentioned, the return on investment for EPA in search enhancement is multiplied when the search approach can be shared with mission partners. EPA Search Paradigm of the Future In the EPA search paradigm of the future, we recognize that the demand for environmental information will be fielded by Web 2.0 applications including collaboration technologies. In order to engage with its partners on the future of our information, the Agency’s access strategy requires feedback on how to exploit both the spatial and temporal dimensions of environmental information, both structured and unstructured, to provide users with more relevant, direct access to the Agency’s and partners vast data and document holdings. An example information need is “what information do EPA and others have on trichloroethylene releases in Alabama during the summer of 2007?” In the immediate future, we are focused on enabling consumers of our data and services to discover information based on keyword search in combination with spatial and temporal constraints, which will in turn greatly improve our ability to serve our internal lines of business, as well as our external partners and customers. In the not too distant future, as a part of this maturation process, we envision opportunities for moving beyond the development and exploitation of simple keyword indices to support content discovery and therefore request information on “intelligent “ search based on semantics. Information as a Product The Agency also requests information on how to prepare its information products that will be shared and re-consumed via the web so that the information products can be stamped as an Authoritative EPA source along with easily packaged metadata to enable search, discovery and understanding. Federated Search Search technologies that enable categorization of information returned from federated searches of EPA holdings are also of great interest. This includes search refinements that return categorized results relevant to a particular query in a way that helps the user quickly understand what type of information is being returned. An example of this functionality for the query “water” might be to return hits in categories of: EPA Websites; Data; Documents and Reference Materials; and “Where You Live,” which would provide an interface to visualize search results in an interactive mapping application.
 

Web Link

FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=ce1386ad15bff6d5874e3840c57dff38&tab=core&_cview=1)
 

Document(s)

RFI: EPA Search Capabilities
 

File Name: Please see attachment for requirements and instructions for this RFI. (Linda Jordan RFI.pdf)

Link: https://www.fbo.gov//utils/view?id=29bf68bfb2ac24a207b4d38b92448e0a

Bytes: 19.65 Kb
 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Place of Performance

Address: US EPA HQ, Washington DC 20004, United States

Zip Code: 20004
 

Record

SN01596312-W 20080620/080618220504-ce1386ad15bff6d5874e3840c57dff38 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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