GLOBAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES SERVICE The Department of Commerce proposes to establish a Global Business Opportunities Service (GLOBUS). The purpose of this service is to identify and deliver electronically to U.S. Businesses information about worldwide procurement opportunities. GLOBUS will be operated by the Department's STAT-USA unit within the Economic and Statistics Administration. One of the items that would naturally be included in such a service would be procurement listings from the Commerce Business Daily (CBD). The CBD contains announcements of most government procurement actions over $25,000. Currently, CBD information is assembled by the Commerce Department, organized and typeset by a Commerce contractor and is published in printed form by the government Printing Office. In addition, copies of the electronic files are sold to approximately one dozen information vendors who repackage the information and sell it to their clients. Many secondary vendors purchase electronic copies from the primary purchasers and offer additional electronic forms of the CBD. There will be no change to these methods of distribution. However, this announcement proposes a fundamental addition to how the Department distributes CBD information. Prior to implementing this service, the Department seeks comments from the private sector about the service. As part of our planning for this service, we have taken several steps to minimize or eliminate potential competition with private firms: Appropriated funds will not be used to distribute the CBD. STAT-USA operates on a full cost recovery basis; all operations will be paid through fees charged to customers. CBD announcements are very time sensitive; private sector vendors typically emphasize same-day delivery of leads to their customers. STAT-USA will minimize direct competition by delivering CBD announcements on the day following their official release to the public. Private vendors add significant value by offering preselection and notification services that automatically deliver the most relevant leads to their customers; STAT-USA will minimize adding value by offering a passive service which requires STAT-USA customers to initiate the search for relevant leads. STAT-USA will not offer bulk distribution of the entire CBD. GLOBUS will be operated by STAT-USA as part of its effort to build a comprehensive business and economic node on the information superhighway and in cooperation with those agencies responsible for collecting and maintaining the respective procurement opportunity programs. STAT-USA will use two existing electronic information services to distribute GLOBUS information: the Economic Bulletin Board using dial-up communications technology and STAT-USA on the Internet using high speed networking technology. Several of the procurement opportunity programs (e.g., TOPS) are already delivered using threse services. GLOBUS represents a more focused method of delivering these opportunities to the public. The data will be organized in such a manner to allow customers to specify an industry or sector of interest. The data base will be searched and relevant opportunities will be returned. GLOBUS will be offered to the public on a subscription basis to the above services. No charge access to GLOBUS will also be available on a walk-in basis at federal depository libraries that are connected to the STAT-USA Internet service. Comments: The Department of Commerce invites comments from the public on the GLOBUS service. Written comments should be addressed to Ken W. Rogers, STAT-USA, Room 4878, Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230. Comments may be submitted by fax by calling (202)482-2164. Comments may also be submitted via electronic mail by sending to krogers@doc.gov. Public comments must be received by March 31st 1995. (Please note, this is a request for public comment only. This is not a solicitation by STAT-USA for purchase of goods or services.) For further information contact: Ken W. Rogers, telephone (202) 482-1405.

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