[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 25, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8398-8399]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-01682]



[[Page 8398]]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Challenge and 
Prize Competition Solicitations Generic Clearance

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 
the Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Commerce, is publishing 
the following summary of a proposed information collection request for 
public comment. Interested persons are invited to send comments 
regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection 
of information, including any of the following subjects: The necessity 
and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper 
performance of the agency's functions; the accuracy of the estimated 
burden; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the 
information collection burden.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before March 27, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted to Jennifer Jessup, 
Departmental Paperwork Clearance Officer, Department of Commerce, Room 
6616, 14th and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via 
the Internet at [email protected]).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be directed to the Information Collection Clearance staff at 
[email protected], or mailed to the PRA Clearance Office at 1401 
Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20230, Room 6616.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Proposed Project: Descriptive information of solutions provided to 
the Federal government in response to Challenge and Competition 
solicitations posted on Challenge.gov.--OMB Control Number: 0690-XXXX 
(New collection), Office of the Secretary.
    Abstract: This request, pursuant to the requirement of section 
3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, is to seek generic clearance for the 
collection of routine information requested of responders to 
solicitations the Federal government makes during the issuance of 
challenges and competitions posted on the General Service 
Administration (GSA)'s Challenge.gov Web site. Since passage of the 
America COMPETES Act of 2011. In order for DOC to quickly and 
effectively launch competitions on a continual basis, DOC seeks generic 
clearance to collect information for these challenges and competitions, 
which will generally include first name, last name, email, city, state 
and when applicable other demographic information. It can also include 
other information necessary to evaluate submissions and understand 
their impact related to the general goals of the competition. Upon 
entry or during the judging process, applicants under the age of 18 may 
be asked to confirm parental consent, requiring students under 18 to 
have a parent signature in writing on a parental consent form provided 
by the Department in order to qualify for the contest. For certain 
challenges we may also need to collect data such as types of data sets 
used in the solution, types of software tools used in the solution, and 
information regarding uses of proprietary software (i.e., licenses or 
use agreements). Information obtained from participants will be used by 
the program managers (challenge manager), other agency officials (such 
as general counsel representatives) and in some cases the technical 
reviewers acting on behalf of the program manager (challenge manager).
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: In 2011, Federal agencies 
including DOC were given prize authority for administering challenges 
and competitions. Section 105(a) of the America Competes Act, adds 
Section 24 to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 
(15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) that addresses provisions for challenges and 
competitions with prizes conducted by Federal agencies. Challenges and 
competitions enable DOC to tap into the expertise and creativity of the 
public in new ways. DOC has sponsored challenges and competitions in a 
wide variety of areas to increase public participation and solicit new 
ideas on a wide array of topics important to the agencies mission. 
DOC's goal is to engage a broader number of stakeholders who are 
inspired to work on some of our most pressing issues.
    The information collected will be used to understand whether the 
participant has met the technical requirements for the challenge, 
assist in the technical review and judging of the solutions that are 
provided, and understand the impact and consequences of administering 
the competition and developing solutions for submission. Information 
may be collected during the competition or after its completion. The 
submissions are evaluated by the submitting agency and typically prizes 
(monetary and non-monetary) are awarded to the winning entries.
    This clearance applies to challenges posted on Challenge.gov, which 
uses a common platform for the solicitation of challenges from the 
public. Each agency designs the criteria for its solicitations based on 
the goals of the challenge and the specific needs of the agency. There 
is no standard submission format for solution providers to follow.
    We anticipate that approximately 250 challenges would be issued 
each year by DOC. It is expected that other federal agencies will issue 
a similar number of challenges. There is no set schedule for the 
issuance of challenges; they are developed and issued on an ``as 
needs'' basis in response to issues the federal agency wishes to solve. 
The respondents to the challenges, who are participating voluntarily, 
are unlikely to reply to more than one or several of the challenges.
    Although in previous memoranda the GSA and Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) described circumstances whereby OMB approval of a PRA 
request is not needed, program officials at DOC have identified several 
sets of information that will typically need to be requested of 
solution providers to enable the solutions to be adequately evaluated 
by the federal agency issuing the challenge. These requests for 
additional information have been suggested to require a PRA review as 
they represent structured data requests.
    There are three types of additional data that will be routinely 
requested by the federal agencies. These include the following:
    Title and/or Subject of the submission. Due to the nature of the 
submission and evaluation processes, it is important that a title and/
or subject be requested and submitted for each submission in order to 
ensure the solution is correctly identified with its provider.
    Identification of data resources. In many cases, the solution to a 
problem will require the solution provider to use data resources. 
Often, the nature of the data sets will be derived from Federal data 
resources, such as data.gov. Evaluations of solutions will often depend 
on the understanding of the selection of the data resource(s) used in 
the solution.
    Description of methodology. For effective judging and evaluation, a 
description of the development methods for the solution to the 
challenge will be requested. For instance, a prize may be awarded to 
the solution of a challenge to develop an algorithm that enables

[[Page 8399]]

reliable prediction of a certain event. A responder could submit the 
correct algorithm, but without the methodology, the evaluation process 
could not be adequately performed.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Table
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Number of     Average burden
                     Forms                         Number of     responses per  per response (in   Total burden
                                                  respondents     respondent         hours)            hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Individuals or Households.....................             500               1             10/60            83.3
Organizations.................................             500               1             10/60            83.3
Businesses....................................             500               1             10/60            83.3
State, territory, tribal or local governments.              30               1             10/60               5
Federal government............................              30               1             10/60               5
                                               -----------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................................           1,560  ..............  ................             255
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information 
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Departmental Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-01682 Filed 1-24-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P