Sources Sought The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Acquisition Management, Contracts and Grants is issuing a Sources Sought to identify industry suggestions and best practices regarding a social media analytic tool. The Department is seeking the availability of a tool that provides user-controlled search and data retrieval capabilities for a possible future acquisition to provide near real time social media analysis. This Sources Sought solicits industry's interest and capability to meet stated objectives and is for planning purposes only. This does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or an Invitation for Bid (IFB) or a promise to issue one in the future. Furthermore, the Department is not liable for any costs incurred as a result of vendor responses to this Sources Sought. The Government does not intend to award a contract for any supply or service on the basis of this request or to otherwise pay for this response. This request is issued for the purpose to 1) receive responses, feedback, and capabilities of potential sources; 2) inform and demonstrate to the Government on the type and scope of work involved in this analytic tool to the Department. BACKGROUND: The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is responsible for developing operational plans, analytic products, and training exercises to ensure the preparedness of the Office, the Department, the Federal Government and the public to respond to domestic and international public health and medical threats and emergencies. OEM is also responsible for ensuring that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has the systems, logistical support, and procedures necessary to coordinate the Department's operational response to acts of terrorism and other public health and medical threats and emergencies. OEM's Division of Fusion is tasked with decision support and rapid analytics during public health emergencies, natural disasters, and special events where federal medical assets are deployed. In this role, Fusion utilizes both traditional and non-traditional forms of data collection to inform and enhance situational awareness. Social media and open source data analytics play an important role in filling gaps in traditional data collection and help our office provide insights to decision makers to aid them in making informed decisions to protect the health and welfare of impacted populations during emergencies. STATED OBJECTIVE: Social Media Analytics Tool Requirements: To meet our requirements, products should have the following attributes: 1. Access to full Twitter firehose. 2. Access to a minimum of 5 years of full Twitter historical data. 3. Access to real-time social media posts. 4. Ability to construct lengthy Boolean searches. 5. Access to multiple account log-ins. 6. Ability to build categorized search queries. 7. Ability to edit or create new search criteria at will. 8. Ability to save multiple searches. 9. Ability to filter search results based on geographic location, at least to the state level. 10. Ability to filter out or remove retweets from search return. 11. Ability to custom set beginning and end of search time-frame. 12. Easy visualization of data, including ability to display multiple searches in a single graph. 13. Real-time alerting. 14. Ability to conduct or train sentiment analysis. Additional attributes that we would find useful (optional): 1. A discovery tool that recommends other Twitter accounts based on your search. 2. Ability to filter results based on type of accounts (i.e. media, public etc.) 3. Ability to export full data into excel or another spreadsheet program. 4. Ability to expand and view conversations to provide further context and situational awareness. 5. Access to API to allow for some integration with other Fusion projects. DEMONSTRATION: Scenarios of how we would utilize this tool: 1. In the midst of an event we want to know when hospitals and/or nursing homes are evacuating patients. Please demonstrate how your tool can be used to both find and visualize this kind of information. Focus on the time period of Superstorm Sandy (October 28 - November 4, 2012). 2. We conduct on-going monitoring of certain public health issues. An increase in the level of discussion on social media could indicate a new development or concern related to that issue. Please demonstrate how your tool can continually monitor and send alerts based on user-made search criteria. Focus on MERS or H7N9. RESPONSE: Your response should be no more than five (5) pages total, one-sided pages with print no smaller than 12 point. Responses must be submitted in Microsoft Word 2000 or later. Interested parties may submit their responses to this Sources Sought to Carol Matamoro Allen, Contracting Officer via e-mail at
contact@example.gov. Responses to this Sources Sought should address how the responder would meet the Government's requirements, in the form of questions for clarification and suggestions for additional requirements that the Government should consider. Responders should also be able to demonstrate their capabilities per the Scenarios above. Responders should refer to Fusion Social Media Analysis. Responses must be received via e-mail by 3:00 p.m. EST on Monday, March 3, 2014. After we receive responses, we will contact vendors for demonstrations of their products here at our Headquarters in Washington DC at the vendor's expense.
