[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 179 (Wednesday, September 16, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55628-55630]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-23246]


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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

[Notice-ID-2015-01; Docket No. 2015-0002; Sequence 24]


GSA's Digital Innovation Hack-a-thon Fall 2015

AGENCY: GSA IT, Digital Services Division, General Services 
Administration (GSA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce a software 
programming and data innovation competition hosted by GSA IT's Digital 
Services Division that will be held on Friday, October 16, 2015. The 
competition details can be viewed at http://open.gsa.gov/Digital-Innovation-Hackathon-Fall2015. The goal of this competition is to ask 
the public and academia to develop smart technology solutions in the 
form of an application, application programming interface (API), and/or 
data mashup that has the capability to provide GSA with key insights 
and recommendations for future enhancements. GSA will challenge 
software developers, designers, engineers, data scientists, and subject 
matter experts (SMEs) to create a solution using publicly available GSA 
data.

DATES: Registration for this event will close Tuesday, October 13, 
2015, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The competition will 
be open on Friday, October 16, 2015, from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. 
Eastern Standard Time (EST), on-site registration at GSA will begin at 
8:30 a.m. (EST).

ADDRESSES: Registration: Registration for this event will be 
accomplished online at the following link: http://open.gsa.gov/Digital-Innovation-Hackathon-Fall2015. The event space is limited to the first 
120 people; once registration is complete, participants will receive a 
confirmation email.

[[Page 55629]]

    Event Location: 1800 F Street NW., Washington, DC 20405, Conference 
Center. A government-issued ID shall be required to gain access into 
the building. All participants must enter through the main entrance 
located on 18th Street.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Cindy A. Smith at 
[email protected] or 816-823-5291.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Purpose: In this competition, participants are asked to develop a 
technology-driven solution using publicly available GSA data that 
allows an agency to identify opportunities for improvements and 
transparency. As such, GSA challenges the participants to create a 
solution using GSA data that could be replicated across government to 
every agency, using their own data. GSA will provide electronic links 
to publicly available datasets through the competition details Web 
page. The datasets will also be available through Data.gov.
    Details of Challenge: Design and create a digital interactive 
solution in the form of an application, application programming 
interface (API), and/or data mashup that utilizes federal data 
collected by GSA. The technology solution should be innovative! GSA 
does not want an analysis tool that tells what is already known. This 
should be a forward-thinking solution that enhances transparency.
    The solution should be a data-driven solution to provide meaningful 
insights that can help drive smarter decisions by federal employees. 
The ultimate goal is to help federal agencies use data to its fullest, 
share data with all agencies, and become more transparent to the 
American public.
    The solution should accomplish two tasks:
    1. Visually display or transmit data in a way that will enhance the 
way GSA works; and
    2. Through analysis of the data, identify relationships, if they 
exist, and provide valuable insights that could be gained through 
improved data collection efforts.
    Coders, designers, engineers, data scientists, SMEs from industry, 
and academia are all invited! Pre-determined teams are welcome to 
include a stand-alone or mix of private industry, non-profit, and 
academia. Modification to team make-up may occur based on team skill 
make-up at the direction of the competition host. Cash prizes will be 
awarded to the best projects.
    Data: Participants will be provided all final project ideas, 
existing code, and publicly available datasets in advance of the event. 
Event information will be posted on the following page, http://open.gsa.gov/Digital-Innovation-Hackathon-Fall2015, and will be updated 
as necessary. Hackathon projects may include the following:
     Green House Gas (GHG) Reduction Visualization--The Office 
of Governmentwide Policy (OGP) has been working to create an analytical 
framework and tool to support agencies in meeting the goals outlined in 
a recent Executive Order 13693 `Planning for Federal Sustainability in 
the Next Decade', regarding greenhouse gas emission reductions. The 
model currently uses several variables to help agencies examine how 
increasing their use of E-85 capable vehicles and replacing gas-powered 
vehicles with E-85 capable vehicles would affect their total greenhouse 
gas emissions. Skills desired include database coding ability (e.g., 
SQL language), analytical research, and experience using data 
visualization software.
     Data Center Consolidation Mashup and Tool--Multiple 
stakeholders including the White House, Congress, and government 
agencies share a common interest in better utilizing government data 
centers. This has led to multiple report generation from multiple 
sources to better understand power consumption and data center 
utilization and efficiency. The purpose of this challenge is to mashup 
different datasets into visualization and application for all 
stakeholders to utilize. Skills desired include web and application 
developers, user experience (UX) designers, data scientists, and data 
center SMEs.
     Travel Challenge 2.0 App Development--As a continuation of 
a Travel Challenge held in 2014, GSA is looking for developers to take 
the Travel Application to the next level. Developed in Python code, 
this tool is close to production quality and needs some finishing code 
and design ideas. Skills desired include Python developers and UX 
designers.
    Eligibility for Challenge: Eligibility to participate in the GSA 
Digital Innovation Hackathon Fall 2015 edition and win a prize is 
limited to entities/individuals--
    1. That have registered to participate in the competition and 
complied with the rules of the competition as explained in this 
posting; and
    2. That have been incorporated in and maintain a primary place of 
business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, 
whether participating singly or in a group, the participant must be a 
citizen or permanent resident of the United States.
    Participants may not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting 
within the scope of employment. However, an individual or entity shall 
not be deemed ineligible to win prize money because the individual or 
entity used Federal facilities or consulted with Federal employees 
during a competition if the facilities and employees are made available 
to all individuals and entities participating in the competition on an 
equitable basis.
    Pre-determined teams of up to 5 members are welcome to include a 
stand-alone or mix of private industry, non-profit, and academia. 
Modification to team make-up may occur based on team skill make-up at 
the direction of the competition host.
    Participants agree to assume any and all risks and waive claims 
against the federal government and its related entities, except in the 
case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of 
property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or 
consequential, arising from participation in this competition, whether 
the injury, death, damage, or loss arose through negligence or 
otherwise. Participants also agree to obtain liability insurance or 
demonstrate financial responsibility, to cover a third party for death, 
bodily injury, property damage, or loss resulting from an activity 
carried out in connection with participation in this competition, with 
the Federal Government named as an additional insured under the 
registered participant's insurance policy and registered participants 
agreeing to indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims 
for damages arising from or related to the competition activities, and 
the Federal Government for damage or loss to Government property 
resulting from such an activity.
    As GSA is under a strict duty not to give preferential treatment to 
any private organization or individual, participants must agree to take 
diligent care to avoid the appearance of Government endorsement of 
competition participation and submission. Participants must agree not 
to refer to GSA's use of your submission (be it product or service) in 
any commercial advertising or similar promotions in a manner that could 
reasonably imply (in the judgment of a reasonable person) that the GSA 
or the federal government endorses, prefers, sponsors, or has an 
affiliation with participants' products or services. Participants agree 
that GSA's

[[Page 55630]]

trademarks, logos, service marks, trade names, or the fact that GSA 
awarded a prize to a participant, shall not be used by the participant 
to imply direct GSA endorsement of participant or participant's 
submission. Both participants and GSA may list the other party's name 
in a publicly available customer or other list so long as the name is 
not displayed in a more prominent fashion than any other third-party 
name.
    Prizes: GSA may award up to three team prizes but no more than 
$1,000 to each member of a winning team. GSA is not required to award 
all prizes if the judges determine that a smaller number of entries 
meet the scope and requirements laid out for this competition, or if 
the agency plans to only use code from a smaller number of entries.
    Participants can win no more than $1,000 per person. Funding for 
this GSA Digital Innovation Hackathon Fall 2015 edition award will come 
from GSA. Prizes will be awarded to the winner(s) of the competition 
via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), within 60 days of announcement of 
the winner(s).
    Requirements: The final solution should be open source code and 
placed on a GSA site to be specified to participants the day of the 
event. ``Open source'' refers to a program in which the source code is 
available to the general public for use and/or modification from its 
original design free of charge. In order to be Open Source Initiative 
Certified, the solution must meet the following ten criteria:
    1. The author or holder of the license of the source code cannot 
collect royalties on the distribution of the program;
    2. The distributed program must make the source code accessible to 
the user;
    3. The author must allow modifications and derivations of the work 
under the program's original name;
    4. No person, group, or field of endeavor can be denied access to 
the program;
    5. The rights attached to the program must not depend on the 
program being part of a particular software distribution;
    6. The licensed software cannot place restrictions on other 
software that is distributed with it;
    7. The solution must be an online, interactive solution that meets 
the goals and objectives provided in this document;
    8. The solution must include documentation of all data sources 
used;
    9. The solution must include a description of how the solution can 
be updated with additional data from other agencies; and
    10. The solver must provide recommendations to enhance Government 
insights through improvements in data collection.
    The winner(s) of the competition will, in consideration of the 
prize(s) to be awarded, grant to GSA a perpetual, non-exclusive, 
royalty-free license to use any and all intellectual property to the 
winning entry for any governmental purpose, including the right to 
permit such use by any other agency or agencies of the Federal 
Government. All other rights of the winning entrant will be retained by 
the winner of the competition.
    Scope: Any federal data and information that is publicly available 
is included in the scope of this challenge. Final project ideas, 
existing code, and public datasets will be provided in advance of the 
event.
    Judges: There will be three judges, each with expertise in 
government-wide policy, travel, information technology, and/or 
acquisition. Judges will award a score to each submission. The 
winner(s) of the competition will be decided based on the highest 
average overall score. Judges will only participate in judging 
submissions for which they do not have any conflicts of interest.
    Judging Criteria: A panel of judges will assess each solution based 
on technical competence and capabilities, use of GSA data to provide 
effective outcomes, creativity/innovation, and valuable information and 
insights.
    Submissions will be judged based on the following metrics:

Criteria Technical Cmpetence and Capabilities/Weight 50%

    Description--The solution addresses the primary goals of the 
Hackathon. It is a finished product that can provide insightful 
analysis and show GSA how to enhance/improve existing functions, share 
data across GSA and more efficiently utilize existing applications.

Use of Data To Provide Effective Outcomes/Weight 20%

    Description--The solution displays in a way that is easy to 
understand, visually appealing, and will help drive understanding of 
current trends as well as recommendations.

Creativity/Innovation/Weight 10%

    Description--The solution exceeds any internal capability that GSA 
has for analysis of data through its incorporation of creative design 
elements and innovative capabilities.

Valuable Information And Insights Regarding Data/Weight 20%

    Description--The solver provides recommendations for additional 
data elements to be collected by the government. The solver identifies 
gaps in the data and utilizes external data sources and research to aid 
the government in setting future data collection policies.

Challenge Goal and Objectives

    Goal: Design and build an application, API, and/or data mashup 
while using GSA data that solves one of three GSA business problems 
provided at the Hackathon.
    Objectives:
    --Utilize GSA data to create an application, API, and/or data 
mashup.
    --Provide GSA a better understanding of use and needs of current 
and future data assets.
    --Post all open source solutions on the GSA open source code site 
for future use by the government developer community and GSA.
    Registration: Registration for this event will be accomplished 
online at the following link: http://open.gsa.gov/Digital-Innovation-Hackathon-Fall2015. It shall remain open until Tuesday, October 13, 
2015, at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST) or until the 120-
person registration capacity is reached. Once registration is complete, 
you shall receive a confirmation email.
    All participants are required to check in with Security upon 
arriving at the GSA Central Office Building, 1800 F Street NW., 
Washington, DC 20405. A government- issued ID is required to gain 
access into the building. All participants must enter through the main 
entrance located on 18th Street.
    Proceed through Security and follow the posted signs to the 
Conference Center, Rooms 1459, 1460, and 1461.
    Check in at the registration table on Friday, October 16, 2015, 
begins at 8:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST). All participants must 
stop here to sign the required form shown below:
     Gratuitous Service Agreement.

    Dated: September 10, 2015.
Kris Rowley,
Director, Enterprise Information & Data Mgmt. Ofc.
[FR Doc. 2015-23246 Filed 9-15-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6820-34-P