HSHQDC-13-R-00102 _Data_Feed_Services _Questions_and_Answers.pdf

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and the solicitation, the terms and conditions contained in the solicitation will prevail.

# Question Response Change to

RFQ?

Description of Change

Contractual/ Technical

1 Is this an old or new requirement? Is there an incumbent contractor?. If so who is the incumbent?

This is a new requirement. No N/A Technical

2 Would you consider making this a sole source acquisition?

The Government will not be making this a sole source acquisition.

No N/A Contractual

3 Also, the RFP mentions a minimum of 25,000 data sources. What constitutes a data source? Would Twitter be considered one data source, or would a single Twitter account holder be considered one data source?

A data source is considered any published, web-based information source. For example, CNN, The Jakarta Post, ProMED and FluTrackers. In this case Twitter is considered a single data source.

No N/A Technical

4 Are we eligible as a Canadian company to respond for the business set-aside?

As this is as small business set-aside, we cannot accept proposals from non-US companies as the Small Business Administration defines a small business as “a concern that has a place of business in the US and operates primarily within the U.S. or makes a significant contribution to the US economy through payment of taxes or use of American products, materials or labor”.

No N/A Contractual

5 Is there an incumbent contractor associated with this work? If so, are you able to provide the name of the contractor and the contract #? Or, is this considered a brand new requirement?

Please see response to Question #1. No N/A Technical

6 I wonder if I might enquire as to whether the Please see response to Question #4. No N/A Contractual

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and aforementioned solicitation notice is open to non-US registered companies?

7 “Data feed shall convey information from event-based scanning for all reported infectious disease outbreaks affecting both human and animal populations.”

This text could be construed to indicate that the desire is to receive information from all human disease outbreaks, and all animal disease outbreaks – or it could be read to indicate that the desire is to receive only those outbreaks which affect both human and animal populations (zoonotic diseases). Could you please clarify whether the desire is all human and animal diseases, or only those which are zoonotic diseases which transfer between animals and humans and vice-versa.

Requirement includes receipt of information from all human disease outbreaks, and all animal disease outbreaks. This includes, but is not limited to, zoonotic disease outbreaks.

No N/A Technical

8 In some government procurements, the government knows what they want often requires combinations of expertise and products from multiple suppliers across the industry and makes a list of potential vendors known to all, so that vendors might better seek synergies and team for improved solutions for the government. Is DHS able to make such vendors aware of each other before the RFP is due in this case? It appears the government is implying that multiple awards might be made. Making interested parties aware of each other may be to the benefit of the government. Certainly we know of traditional competitors and they

The “interested vendors” list option has been activated already on FedBizOpps.

No N/A Contractual

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and know us but in the case of global bio-surveillance, I suspect there may be many other potential contributors than our current competitors.

With less than a 2 week turn-around from issue to due date, finding new ways to do more is constrained. Could we either get that list of potential or interested vendors or a one week extension, that enables us to research this more fully please?

9 I believe this can be tackled and DHS/NBIC can have a tool they are very proud to be using and one that provides a global situational awareness with the ability to flex and focus on event based dynamics in an ad-hoc manner and be shareable across agencies. To do that in a cost effective manner; could you expound on how you envision 25k feeds being distributed and translated?

Contractor shall aggregate information from at least 25,000 independently published, online data sources into the biosurveillance real-time data feed. Sources shall be indexed every 12 hours, at minimum. See response to Question #3 for definition of a data source. For those online sources publishing in languages other than English, the Contractor shall provide machine translation or human-provided translation into English in a timely manner (i.e., less than 2 hours from ingestion) in at least four additional languages other than English.

Yes C. Task 1, second bullet:

Data feed shall convey information from a minimum of 25,000 online sources. Sources shall be indexed every 12 hours, at minimum.

C. Task 1, fourth bullet:

Data feed shall convey information from publicly available websites published in at least five (5) languages

Technical

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and including, but not limited to English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese, and translated into English.

Translation of non-English source information should be completed within 2 hours of ingestion from the original source.

10 Is DHS expecting on day 1 for there to be a pipe of a minimum of 25k feeds? Is Twitter considered 1 feed in this scenario (there are 500 million tweets a day)?

See answer to Question #11. Twitter is considered a single information source.

Yes For this contract, Twitter is considered a single data source for the data feed.

Technical

11 Would DHS be amicable to a scaled roll-out of feeds; On day 1 we start ingesting 2-3000 feeds and begin aggregating and analyzing more until an objective maximum is hit at the end of year 1?

Contractor shall have 4 weeks from award to deliver a data feed that meets all the requirements of the RFP. A scaled roll-out is acceptable within this 4-week period.

Yes C. Task 1 – after bulleted list of requirements The Contractor shall deliver a biosurveillance data feed that meets the above requirements within 4 weeks

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and from date of award. NBIC will provide the Contractor with guidance about desirable publicly available data sources, filters, and other aspects of the data feed (such as the definition of “significance of the event”), as necessary, upon award.

12 My question regarding the translation services are: Does DHS envision this part as employees in seats at the customer's site looking at data 24/7 in multiple languages?

Is there an expectation that a technical solution will auto translate all of the data into english?

See response to Question #9. DHS will accept either machine translation or human-provided translation of non-English data sources – into English – completed within 2 hours from the ingestion of the original source.

No N/A Technical

13 Is DHS anticipating hosting server space? DHS requires web-based access to the information described in the solicitation and will not provide onsite hosting server space.

No N/A Technical

14 While the evaluation factors include the number of on-line biosurvelliance sources provided, will DHS also be specifying any data sources including publicly available websites including trade media, social media and subject matter expert sites? If so, will these potentially have costs associated with

See response to Question #11 and resulting change to RFQ. Upon award, NBIC will provide guidance on the types of publicly available websites desired, and will aim for websites accessed at no-cost.

No N/A Technical

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and obtaining the data?

15 The SOW requires the data feed content to be filtered, tagged and curated prior to delivery. What is meant by "curated?”

“Curating” is defined as: Providing a short synopsis of the information contained in a single article, along with a link to the web-hosted article.

No N/A Technical

16 The SOW requires the data feed convey structured, event-based information including, but not limited to the specific disease entity, location, time stamp of the original publication, and details and/or significance of the event derived from the reporting source. How is DHS defining “significance?”

See answer to Question #11 and resulting change to RFP. DHS will provide guidance on the definition of “significance” upon award.

This may take into account outbreak characteristics including, but not limited to, the disease entity, number of cases above baseline, and available countermeasures.

No N/A Technical

17 With regard to the GPR license, does DHS envision receiving and storing the data feed or would accessing the data feed via a secure, cloud based platform be acceptable?

DHS requires delivery of the data feed via email and RSS feed (see RFP, answer to Question #32, and resulting change to RFP).

Access via a secure, cloud-based platform is not required, but is acceptable, as long as specified delivery requirements are met.

No N/A Technical

18 The SOW states that the GPR license shall grant the Government “use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose technical data within the Government without restriction", as well as outside the government for government purposes. Item

(i) of the GPR references the data feed. Is the intent to obtain GPR license rights to the data feed? Some information obtained via open source may be copyrighted or otherwise protected by third parties for which contractor would not have the authority to provide the license sought.

See answer to Question #29 for definition of “technical data”. DHS requires GPR to the filtered, tagged, and curated metadata content (see answer to Question #15 for definition of “curation”), such as the curated content and the structured, event-based information such as specific disease entity, location, and time stamp of the original publication. In other words, DHS requires GPR to the technical content of the data feed, not the copyrighted materials of the original source.

19 Are you just looking for a “Quote sheet”?

The Government expects a price and technical quote.

No N/A Contractual

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and

20 Are you looking for a Technical approach and Management Approach. If so, what’s the page limit?

The Government only requires a technical approach quote. There is an overall page limit of 20 pages (not including the cover letter).

Yes Add the page limits into Section VI.

Solicitation Instructions.

Contractual

21 We would like to ask for an extension till end of Sept 2013, as September month is very busy for small businesses dealing with Federal Government. Is it possible to get some kind of extension?

The Government will be extending the due date for proposals.

Yes Change the due date in Section VI. Solicitation Instructions.

Contractual

22 When do you want the RSS feed services to start delivering to your organization?

See response to Question #11. No N/A Technical

23 Is the government open to give some ramp-up time to the awardee to configure their system according to the specifications outlined in the

RFP?

See response to Question #11. No N/A Technical

24 Does the awardee need to have a weekly / monthly meetings with the government managers?

DHS requires the ability to contact the Contractor regarding technical problems/concerns (such as to report interruption or degradation of data feed service) and receive a response within 2 hours of the initial report.

Weekly/monthly meetings are not required.

Yes C. Task 1 – after bulleted list of requirements

The Contractor shall provide the Government with designated contact information for the Government to report technical problems/concer ns (such as interruption or degradation of

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and data feed service). The Contractor shall provide a written or oral response to the Government within 2 hours of receipt of a technical problem/concern

25 Does the awardee needs to perform requirement analysis with the end-customer to configure their systems?

See response to Question #11, and resulting change to RFP. NBIC will provide additional guidance about requirements upon award, as necessary, and any additional requirement analysis or configuration must be completed by the Contractor within 4 weeks of award. A data feed that meets all requirements of the RFP must be delivered starting 4 weeks from date of award.

No N/A Technical

26 Will the government award preference point for “SBA HUBZONE” set-asides?

The Government will not be awarding preference points for HUBZones.

No N/A Contractual

27 Can the awardee utilize the existing Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) such as hardware servers, software licenses that can be spared for processing the RSS feed? If so, can we get a list of those.

Not applicable for this contract. No N/A Technical

28 In reference to C. Contractor requirements, Task 1 - Bullets #6&7:

a. does this tagged/filtered/curated data feed conveying the structured data itself have to be publicly available? Ie is HSHQDC-13-R-00102

Information provided to DHS after the tagged/filtered/curated process does not need to be publicly available. DHS does not anticipate requiring onsite consultation; “in consultation with NBIC” is meant to specify

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and requesting a feed of structured data that is itself already made publicly available, for example on .org or .com website to the public? Or is HSHQDC-13-R-00102 requesting a feed of publicly available data but not requiring that the post tag/curation/structure portion of the data feed has to have been made available to the public

b. Bullet #9: is there any indication of whether “in consultation with NBIC” involves provision in a secure environment or on-site in a manner that will necessitate additional subject matter experts or overhead or technical support that the email/RSS feed means of delivery must be coordinated with NBIC to ensure it is in a format that can be received by NBIC.

29 GPR license terms: “Technical data” is not defined. Please define your office’s understanding of “technical data”. How does technical data differ from “data feed”? Does “technical data” include disclosure of the tags or sub-tags that comprise the signature?

“Technical data” is defined as the filtered, tagged, and curated metadata content, such as structured, event-based information such as specific disease entity, location, time stamp of the original publication.

No N/A Technical

30 Will you be providing answers to ALL of the questions submitted by third parties?

Yes, all questions have been included in this posting.

No N/A Contractual

31 Section III C Task 1 bullets 5 and 8 and Section VII Evaluation (a) Contractor Requirements - The requirements do not specify the number of domains or terms needed for filtering. Is the government requesting that the vendor provide that domains and terms be added without limit for the duration of the contract or will the contract be limited to the domains specified in the response?

See response to Question #11 and resulting change to RFP. The Contractor shall have 4 weeks from date of award to deliver a biosurveillance data feed that meets the requirements of the RFP. During the period of performance, the Contractor shall implement ad-hoc requests by the Government for additional filters/queries within the human disease and animal disease domains within 48 hours of request.

No C. Task 1 – after bulleted list of requirements Biosurveillance requires adaptability to emerging diseases or conditions that were previously unknown. During

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and the period of performance, the Contractor shall implement ad-hoc requests by the Government for additional filters/queries within the human disease and animal disease domains within 48 hours of request.

32 Section III C Task 1 bullet 9 Contractor Requirements - Is the vendor responsible only for delivery of the data feed with its metadata attributes to a single email recipient and/or a single RSS recipient? What does "in consultation with NBIC mean? Is it determining whether it will be email, RSS or both and the requisite addresses?

Contractor shall provide the data feed via email and secure RSS feed format. See answer to Question 28 regarding “in consultation with

NBIC”.

Yes C. Task 1 – ninth bullet Contractor shall provide the data feed via email and secure RSS feed format.

Technical

33 Section IV D (iv) Invoices - The description of the services rendered includes "hours incurred" - since this is a FFP contract for a data feed on a 24x7 basis, are labor hours of individuals servicing the data feed an applicable term for this contract?

Yes, since this is a FFP contract, hours incurred will not be included in the invoice. As indicated in the solicitation, hours incurred should only be included if it is applicable to the contract.

No N/A Contractual

34 Section III C Task 1 bullets 1 Contractor Requirements - Data feed shall convey information from publicly available websites including trade media, social media and subject matter expert sites. When the

Twitter is an acceptable social media source, but not a requirement.

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and statement social media is made does the government expect “Twitter” to be included as one of the social media sites?

35 Do you have a budget for this effort and what is that budget?

Yes, the Government has a budget for this effort; however, it is not at liberty to share it.

No N/A Contractual

36 Is this a time and materials bid? Please see section VI 2A of the RFP for the contract type.

No N/A Contractual

37 Do you have a preferred vendor that you believe meets the stated requirements:

Data feed shall convey information from publicly available websites including trade media, social media and subject matter expert sites.

Data feed shall convey information from a minimum of 25,000 online sources.

Data feed shall update content on an hourly basis, at minimum, and be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.

Data feed shall convey information from publicly available websites published in at least five (5) languages including, but not limited to English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese, and translated into English.

Data feed shall convey information from event-based scanning for all reported infectious disease outbreaks affecting both human and animal populations.

Data feed shall convey data that provides worldwide coverage.

Data feed content shall be filtered, tagged and curated prior to delivery.

This is a competitive solicitation, as specified in the RFP.

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and

Data feed shall convey structured, event-based information including, but not limited to the specific disease entity, location, time stamp of the original publication, and details and/or significance of the event derived from the reporting source.

Data feed shall be delivered in an email or RSS feed format, in consultation with NBIC.

38 Is the system that you are looking for an add on to a legacy system and if so - what is the legacy system?

DHS does not anticipate acquiring a system.

This solicitation is for a data feed provided through email and an RSS feed format.

No N/A Technical

39 Will you require the new system to interface with the legacy system?

See response to Question #38. No N/A Technical

40 What bio-surveillance diseases or symptoms are you looking to monitor and collect?

All human only disease outbreaks, all animal only disease outbreaks and all zoonotic disease outbreaks. Additional types of diseases or symptoms are of interest to NBIC but are not required for this solicitation.

No N/A Technical

41 What bio-surveillance diseases or symptoms are you looking to monitor and collect?

All human only disease outbreaks, all animal only disease outbreaks and all zoonotic disease outbreaks. Additional types of diseases or symptoms are of interest to NBIC but are not required for this solicitation.

No N/A Technical

42 Does the system have to be based on reporting through Email and RSS or can it be a direct link to your alert systems (such as

HAN)?

Email and RSS access required. See response to Question #32 and resulting change to RFP.

43 Can the analysis of foreign languages be direct or does it have to be translated? Our capability is based on direct NLP of the languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Translation of non-English source content as presented in the original source article is required. Analysis of non-translated information is not acceptable.

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and

Urdu, Indonesian) and are working on Russian?

44 Can we get an extension until 27 September 2013 in order of us to put forward a more complete offer?

Please see response to question #21. Contractual

45 Will we be able to provide a demonstration of the system to enable you to have a better understanding of the flexibility and ease of use of the system to facilitate your making a more informed decision?

No. No N/A Technical

46 relative to the beginning of the contract, when do you need the system fully operational?

See response to Question #11. No Technical

47 Is this a contract for development of a capability and providing it, or is it just a contract for a a 1 year license for a tool with an option for a second year license - which would suggest you are only interested in applicants who have this exact capability "off the shelf", right?

See response to Question #11. No Technical

48 What value scope are you looking for, like an SBIR Phase I, $150K, Phase II, $1M or a RIP $3M?

Please see response to question #35. No N/A

49 How many pages is the proposal? Please see response to question #20. Yes Refer to question #20.

Contractual

50 What do they mean by 25K online sources, is Twitter 1 or a user on Twitter is 1?

Twitter is considered a single data source for this contract. Online sources include any publicly available, web-hosted information source such as CNN, The Jakarta Post, ProMED and FluTrackers.

No N/A Technical

51 What are you using now and what is good, bad and ugly about it?

DHS does not currently have this capability. No N/A Technical

52 How important is it that Chinese be one of the languages?

Per the RFP, Chinese is a language required for translation into English.

*Responses are provided as information only. In the event of any conflict between the information contained in the responses and

53 we consider curate to mean a short synopsis of the article under consideration, along a live link to the original information and including a comment from Curation as to its relevance. Is this the sort of approach that would be required under HSHQDC-13-R-00102?

Yes. See response to Question #15. No N/A Technical