Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), Office of Information Technology, Technology Policy, Planning, and Acquisitions Office, IT Contracting, 1 Columbus Circle, NE, Room 3-170, Washington, DC 20544

D -- EXPERT CONSULTING SERVICES IN THE AREA OF DIGITAL LIBRARIES AND NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES AND INTERNET/INTRANET TECHNOLOGIES Contact, Linda Round, Contracting Officer, 202-273-2309. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) intends to negotiate with a non-profit research organization, The Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), on a sole source basis, for a base year and one-year option contract for expert consulting services related to digital libraries and networking technologies and internet/intranet technologies. CNRI will provide assistance in the development of a Technology Forecasting Plan for a national information infrastructure for the Federal Courts system. CNRI will also provide expert assistance to AO staff in identifying and designing experiments that will allow demonstrations and assessments of the technologies in selected Court system venues. CNRI is currently providing national leadership to NSF/DARPA/NASA sponsored digital library research and is applying the resulting technology to the Library of Congress and other Government agencies. They are also providing coordination for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards body for Internet/Intranet protocols; leading an industry-based consortium made up of over 40 leading telecommunications, computer, and applications companies addressing long-term national information infrastructure issues; and providing technical coordination to national testbed efforts exploring new networking technologies. CNRI's assistance to the AO is an opportunity for the AO and the Federal Court system to leverage government and industry's ongoing investment in information and networking technology research, while at the same time benefiting from the technical expertise of CNRI staff and its research partners. CNRI will be precluded from participation in any procurement in areas on which they provide advice/consultation. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. No Request for Proposal (RFP) will be available. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. (276)

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