Evangelist for Data.Gov Open Government

RFI-MCD-10-0813001 Request for Information (RFI) for Evangelist for Data.Gov Open Government 1. Introduction This Request is for Information for the General Services Administration which is focused on Data.Gov and the open display and use of data. The Evangelist, from a Government agency, academia, non-profit or commercial firm will be a single person, with knowledge of Data.Gov, data sharing and the semantic web. They will work daily with the Data.Gov team and become known for providing expertise in the area of evangelizing knowledge dissemination and the development and use of Data.gov, gaining a greater involvement of agencies to expose high value datasets and the involvement of other stakeholders such as the open government community and the mash-up programmer communities. This RFI is issued for information and does not constitute a Request for Proposals, nor does it commit the Government to contract with any source or supply whatsoever. The Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. 2. Background Data.Gov was launched by GSA on May 21, 2009, to meet the President's commitment to transparency and openness in Government. In response to the President's direction to improve the transparency of government, the Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council created a Data.Gov to improve public access to a wide variety of U.S. Government data. Data.gov is a public-friendly website that provides descriptions of the Federal datasets, information on how to access the datasets, contact mechanisms, metadata information, and links to publicly accessible applications that leverage the datasets. The end users are also provided with opportunities to provide information feedback and ratings in the spirit of transparency and collaboration. The DataGov team is in need of an additional resource person to work with agencies and others to produce high value data sets and make them available in a way that is very usable for the public use developers. The role of the Evangelist for Data.gov requires four very different capabilities in the same person: (1) extensive outreach and communications shill and experience to bring excite to the program; (2) extensive experience in designing and implementing open government systems; (3) a proven research record for identifying and developing new technologies; and (4) managing a complex data and information environment that encompasses public to classified data. The role requires unique ability to use rigorous research methods and apply those to developing and implementing some of the largest open government systems in the world. Their extensive work with multiple parts of the Government brings an understanding of the multitude of policy issues inherent in the release of information key to Data.gov's current focus. The role requires knowledge of and access to an extensive network of people organizations and experience leading many areas of public outreach and engagement that can be brought to bear for Data.gov. The role will be providing expertise in the area of knowledge dissemination and evangelizing the development and use of Data.gov gaining a greater involvement of agencies and other stakeholders such as the open government community and the mash-up programmer communities. The person will create excitement and drive around the program. This will allow practical field application of leading edge technology issues with a very important stakeholder. As the Federal Government becomes more accessible and more focused on information openness, more focus needs to be brought to Government approaches to web content and especially data standards. Efforts will be to assist in data normalization, the documentation of data dictionaries as making data findable and usable by design principles that are commonly called the semantic web. The Federal Government's adoption of these technology approaches will provide a critical tipping-point for advancing the adoption and implementation of the technology. As the Federal Government becomes more accessible and more focused on information openness, more focus needs to be brought to Government approaches to web content and especially data standards. Efforts will be to assist in data normalization, the documentation of data dictionaries as making data findable and usable by design principles that are commonly called the semantic web. The Federal Government's adoption of these technology approaches will provide a critical tipping-point for advancing the adoption and implementation of the technology. The Evangelist's experience and understanding of knowledge management and information architecture will be a significant asset to the team. Responding to this RFI Responses to this RFI should be no more than 3 pages and address the roles and activities described above. Contracting Office Address: General Services Administration, Attn: Daryl Hawkins, 1800 F Street NW (ACMD, Room 3140) Washington, DC 20405 (Email daryl.hawkins@gsa.gov) Place of performance: Place of performance is the same as the contracting office above. Point of Contact: Daryl Hawkins daryl.hawkins@gsa.gov Phone: (202) 208-5028