GSA's Travel Data Challenge Competition, 9206-9209 [2014-03191]
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 32 / Tuesday, February 18, 2014 / Notices
information collections that are
designed to yield reliably actionable
results, such as monitoring trends over
time or documenting program
performance. Such data uses require
more rigorous designs that address: The
target population to which
generalizations will be made, the
sampling frame, the sample design
(including stratification and clustering),
the precision requirements or power
calculations that justify the proposed
sample size, the expected response rate,
methods of assessing potential
nonresponse bias, the protocols for data
collection, and any testing procedures
that were or will be undertaken prior
fielding the study. Depending on the
degree of influence the results are likely
to have, such collections may still be
eligible for submission for other generic
mechanisms that are designed to yield
quantitative results.
Federal Communications Commission.
Gloria J. Miles,
Federal Register Liaison, Office of the
Secretary, Office of Managing Director.
[FR Doc. 2014–03330 Filed 2–14–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712–01–P
GENERAL SERVICES
ADMINISTRATION
[Notice–OGP–2014–01; Docket 2014–0002;
Sequence 6]
GSA’s Travel Data Challenge
Competition
Office of Government-wide
Policy, General Services
Administration.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The purpose of this notice is
to announce a challenge competition
hosted by GSA’s Office of Governmentwide Policy that will begin on February
14th, 2014. The competition will be
open until April 11, 2014. The
competition details can be viewed at
www.challengepost.com on or after
February 14th. The goal of this
challenge is to ask the public to develop
a smart technology solution that has the
capability to provide agencies with key
insights and recommendations for cost
savings behaviors related to travel. GSA
will challenge solvers to create a tool
using sample GSA travel data that can
then be replicated across Government to
aid agencies in making smarter travel
decisions. Furthermore, GSA will ask
members of the public to provide
recommendations for improvement in
data collection.
DATES: February 18, 2014.
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
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Ms.
Katherine Pearlman at
katherine.pearlman@gsa.gov or 202–
738–2591.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S.
General Services Administration (GSA)
manages a broad portfolio of key,
government-wide operations and
policies. In managing this portfolio,
GSA has access to extensive government
operations data—data which may hold
potential solutions to some federal
agencies’ most pressing problems.
GSA’s Office of Government-wide
Policy, sponsor of the Travel Data
Challenge, is looking to bring a
quantitative approach to the data the
federal government collects in order to
help agencies make smarter business
decisions, and to allow them to drive
greater saving and efficiencies. Pursuing
this goal supports several of GSA’s
highest priorities in serving our
partners, including delivering better
value and savings, and leading with
innovation.
In this GSA Travel Data Challenge,
the public is asked to develop a
technology-driven solution using GSA
travel data that allows an agency to
identify opportunities to reduce costs.
As such, GSA challenges the public to
create a tool using GSA travel data that
could be replicated across government
to every agency, using their own travel
data. Sample data sets with GSA travel
data will be provided. However, in
order to solve the key purpose of this
competition, challenge solvers should
address how the tool can be replicated
using travel data from other agencies.
This tool is intended to show agencies
where and how they can save money on
federal travel. The tool is not intended
to publicly display any agency’s travel
data and users will need to log in via a
certified username and password to
interact with the tool. One of the key
purposes of the tool will be to provide
agencies with visibility into their travel
spending and recommendations for
cost-savings behaviors. In addition, the
tool will enhance internal transparency
and hold agencies accountable for their
spending—steps which help to save
money for American taxpayers.
A second part of the GSA Travel Data
Challenge asks the public to identify
specific gaps in the travel data collected
by the government, and to provide
recommendations for how the
government can improve insights into
federal travel spending through
additional data collection. The purpose
for this information is to gain an
understanding of what the government
could do with additional data elements,
if those data elements were to be
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
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collected by agencies. This will help
increase awareness of needed
improvements in data collection, and
further the goal of leading greater
transparency into government spending.
Details of Challenge
Design and create a digital interactive
tool that utilizes federal travel data
collected by GSA, in coordination with
any other publicly available data sets.
The technology tool should be
innovative! GSA does not want an
analysis tool that tells what is already
known. This should be a forwardthinking tool that enhances
transparency and helps to hold agencies
accountable for what they are spending
on travel, while also providing agencies
with recommendations for how to
reduce costs.
The tool should visually display data
to provide meaningful insights that can
help drive smarter travel decisions by
federal employees. The ultimate goal is
to help federal agencies drive cost
saving behaviors in travel through easy
to understand information. The tool
should accomplish two tasks:
(1) Visually display data in a way that
will show agencies how and where they
are spending money on travel, and
(2) Through analysis of the data, show
primary categories or cost drivers that
can enable federal agencies to reduce
and/or contain official travel costs
compared to appropriate benchmarks
(as determined through research as well
as the sample data provided). Focus on
attributes that consistently result in the
travelers acquiring the lowest cost of a
trip. Use this information to benchmark
historical data against real time
planning and provide action items to
help travel managers monitor and
improve traveler behaviors, resulting in
greater travel savings through
transparency. Finally, identify valuable
insights that could be gained through
improved data collection efforts.
Examples of Questions That
Submissions to the GSA Travel Data
Challenge Should Answer Include
Are travelers booking airline
reservations far in advance to secure
low cost airfare? How many days in
advance are travelers booking their
trips, taking into consideration industry
standards and benchmarks? For
example, is there a correlation between
booking time and cost?
Are travelers utilizing travel services,
such as FedRooms®?
Are travelers booking online?
With regard to data visibility issues, is
key data being missed? Highlight where
data is missing, e.g., where a traveler
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 32 / Tuesday, February 18, 2014 / Notices
may have not used our existing systems,
therefore, data is lacking.
What data elements are missing that
could be valuable to an agency travel
manager or chief financial officer?
How much could an agency save if
they adjusted one or a set of cost-driving
behaviors such as, time of year of travel,
booking online, travel to certain cities
during certain times, booking in
advance?
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Data
Challenge solvers will be provided
with sample data sets to use in
designing the tool. The tool should have
the capability to be updated with data
from additional agencies, making the
tool scalable, dynamic, and
configurable. Challenge solvers should
not be limited to only the data provided.
Be creative and use other public data
sets that can give users a better
understanding of their travel options.
Document all data sources and explain
why they are useful. Examples of
additional resources include data.gov,
City Pairs, per diem rates, and Fedrooms
property lists. You are encouraged to
conduct research in order to find other
data sources that are publicly available.
Eligibility for Challenge
Eligibility to participate in the GSA
Travel Data Challenge and win a prize
is limited to entities/individuals that:
(1) Have agreed to the rules of the
competition as explained in this
posting. (2) Are either a private entity or
individual, provided further that in the
case of a private entity, it is
incorporated in and maintains a primary
place of business in the United States,
and in the case of an individual,
whether participating singly or in a
group, is a citizen or permanent resident
of the United States; and that the
participant is not a federal entity or
federal employee acting within the
scope of employment. An individual or
entity shall not be deemed ineligible
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.
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
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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, in
an amount 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. Entrants are hereby
advised that diligent care must be taken
to avoid the appearance of Government
endorsement of Entrant’s competition
participation and submission. Moreover,
as is customary when doing business
with the Federal Government, Entrant
may not refer to GSA’s use of your
submission (be it product or service) in
any commercial advertising or similar
promotions in a manner that states or
implies that the product or service being
used is endorsed or preferred by GSA or
any other element of the Federal
Government, or that the Federal
Government considers it to be superior
to other products or services. The intent
of this policy is to prevent the
appearance of Federal Government bias
toward any one product or service.
Entrant agrees that GSA’s trademarks,
logos, service marks, trade names, or the
fact that GSA awarded a prize to
Entrant, shall not be used by Entrant to
imply direct GSA endorsement of
Entrant or Entrant’s submission. Both
Entrant 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 prizes but
is not required to award all three prizes
if the judges determine that only one or
two entries meet the scope and
requirements laid out for this challenge,
or if the Agency plans to only use code
from one or two entries. Funding for
this GSA Travel Data Challenge award
will come from the Office of
Government-wide Policy’s FY2014
Budget and will be made to winner(s) of
the competition via electronic funds
transfer, within 30 days of
announcement of the winner(s).
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The prizes may include three awards:
Grand Prize: $35,000.
Runner up: $30,000.
Honorable mention: $25,000.
Requirements
The final product should be a tool
that is housed online and can be
updated to include data sets from other
agencies. Capabilities should also
include updating data in the most
efficient time cycle, such as monthly,
quarterly, annually or as new
information becomes available.
The final tool should be in Open
Source Code. 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
tool must meet following six 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; and
6. The licensed software cannot place
restrictions on other software that is
distributed with it.
The winner(s) of the competition will,
in consideration of the prize to be
awarded, grant to GSA a perpetual, nonexclusive, 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 travel data and
information that is publicly available is
included in the scope of this challenge.
Summary-level sample data will be
provided.
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 32 / Tuesday, February 18, 2014 / Notices
PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Goals
Objectives
Design a tool to aggregate, synthesize, and display GSA’s
travel data in a way that is easy to understand and will
help drive cost-saving behaviors.
Allow for easy updates to the data ..........................................
Allow for users to compare data to appropriate benchmarks,
across agencies and within one agency.
PROJECT MILESTONES/DELIVERABLES
Milestone/deliverable
description
Date
April 11, 2014 .......
May 9, 2014 ..........
June 6, 2014 .........
Solver design due to
GSA OGP.
Winner(s) announced.
Prize(s) Awarded.
—Utilize visual aids such as charts and graphs to display data.
—Include capabilities for geospatial data visualization of data.
—Create benchmarks and identify behaviors that can help to lower costs.
—As new data is collected later on by the Government, backend users must be
easily able to update the dashboards to reflect these changes.
—Design an interactive dashboard with which users can filter to view data in the
following ways:
1. All travel data for one agency across topic areas—cities traveled to, dates
traveled, extent of stay, cost of trip, annual travel costs, monthly travel costs,
etc.
2. All data for one topic area across agencies.
3. Agency data for one topic area as compared to other specific, mission-similar
or size-similar agencies.
4. Agency data for one topic area as compared to Governmentwide trends.
Judging Criteria
Requirements
The solution must be an online,
interactive tool that meets the goals and
objectives provided in this document.
The solution must be in open source
code.
The solution must include
documentation of all data sources used.
The solution must include a
description of how the tool can be
updated with additional data from other
agencies
The solver must provide
recommendations to enhance
Government insights through
improvements in data collection.
SUBMISSIONS WILL BE JUDGED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METRIC
Criteria
Technical competence and
capabilities
Use of data to provide
effective outcomes
Creativity/innovation
Valuable information and
insights regarding data
Description .....
The tool addresses the primary goal of the challenge.
It is a finished product that
can provide insightful analysis and show agencies
how and where they are
spending money on travel.
The tool can provide recommendations for cost-savings behaviors. The tool
can be easily updated with
new data by the back-end
user.
50% ........................................
Does not meet the goals and
requirements of the challenge.
Meets few elements of the requirements of the challenge
and goes a short way towards meeting the goal of
the challenge.
Meets most of the requirements outlined in the challenge and contributes to the
overall goal of the challenge.
Meets all requirements outlined in the challenge, and
provides substantial contribution to the goal of the
challenge.
The tool aggregates, synthesizes and displays travel
data in a way that is easy
to understand, visually appealing, and will help drive
understanding of current
trends as well as recommendations for future
savings.
The tool exceeds any internal
capability that GSA has for
analysis of travel data
through its incorporation of
creative design elements
and innovative capabilities..
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
20% ........................................
Data is not used, or outcomes
are off base. Unsuitable for
use by the government.
Meets few elements of the requirements of the challenge
and goes a short way towards meeting the goal of
the challenge.
Uses some of the data provided by OGP, and/or other
sources, but the outcomes
presented through the data
are not of a high quality.
Uses the data provided by
OGP, as well as other
sources of data to produce
effective outcomes.
10% ........................................
Lacks creativity and innovation.
20%.
Information is not provided.
Shows little signs of creativity
and innovation.
Information is lacking real recommendations or insights.
Is innovative or creative in at
least one meaningful way.
Information is useful and insightful in at least one
meaningful way.
Is extremely innovative and
creative.
Information is useful and provides the government with
some suggestions for future
improvement in data collection.
Weight ............
Level 1 ...........
Level 2 ...........
Level 3 ...........
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Level 4 ...........
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 32 / Tuesday, February 18, 2014 / Notices
9209
SUBMISSIONS WILL BE JUDGED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METRIC—Continued
Criteria
Technical competence and
capabilities
Use of data to provide
effective outcomes
Creativity/innovation
Valuable information and
insights regarding data
Level 5 ...........
Solver product meets all requirements outlined in the
challenge and provides additional, unique, useful capabilities that meet the
overall goal of the challenge.
Uses the data provided by
OGP as well as additional,
publicly-available data from
a variety of sources to
produce outstanding outcomes.
Is extremely innovative and
creative, leading to new insights and desirable outcomes.
Information provided is extensive, well thought-out, valuable, and insightful.
Judges
There will be six judges, each a senior
career official of GSA with expertise in
government-wide policy, travel,
information technology, and/or
acquisition. Each judge will award a
score to each submission and the
winner(s) of the competition will be
decided based on the highest average
overall score. GSA will also have a
technical advisor from Sabre, Inc who
will assist the judges in evaluating the
submissions as needed. However, the
technical advisor will not vote in
determining the prizes. Judges will only
participate in judging submissions for
which they do not have any conflicts of
interest.
Judges are: Anne Rung, GSA
Associate Administrator for
Government-wide Policy—Craig Flynn,
Director—Travel Policy Division, Office
of Government-wide Policy—Kris
Rowley, GSA Office of the Chief
Information Officer—Tim Burke, GSA
Federal Acquisition Service—Jon
Bearscove, GSA FAS Region 10—Sonny
Hashmi—Acting Chief Information
Officer—GSA Technical Advisor: Sam
Gilliland, Sabre Technologies.
Registration: Anyone intending to
participate in the Travel Data Challenge
can register by contacting Katherine
Pearlman via
katherine.pearlman@gsa.gov. Upon
registration, you will be sent the sample
data sets to use in solving the challenge.
Submission of Entries
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Entries must be submitted online via
ChallengePost by 11:59 p.m. EST on
April 11th, 2014.
Dated: February 10, 2014.
Anne Rung,
Associate Administrator, Office of
Government-wide Policy, General Services
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2014–03191 Filed 2–14–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820–14–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, HHS.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
Notice.
This notice announces the
intention of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request
that the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) approve the proposed
information collection project:
‘‘Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety
Culture Comparative Database.’’ In
accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C.
3506(c)(2)(A), AHRQ invites the public
to comment on this proposed
information collection.
This proposed information collection
was previously published in the Federal
Register on December 6th, 2013 and
allowed 60 days for public comment.
One comment was received. The
purpose of this notice is to allow an
additional 30 days for public comment.
SUMMARY:
Comments on this notice must be
received by March 20, 2014.
DATES:
Written comments should
be submitted to: Doris Lefkowitz,
Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, by
email at doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov.
Copies of the proposed collection
plans, data collection instruments, and
specific details on the estimated burden
can be obtained from the AHRQ Reports
Clearance Officer.
ADDRESSES:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Doris Lefkowitz, AHRQ Reports
Clearance Officer, (301) 427–1477, or by
email at doris.lefkowitz@ahrq.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
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Proposed Project
Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety
Culture Comparative Database.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine
called for health care organizations to
develop a ‘‘culture of safety’’ such that
their workforce and processes focus on
improving the reliability and safety of
care for patients (IOM, 1999; To Err is
Human: Building a Safer Health
System). To respond to the need for
tools to assess patient safety culture in
health care, AHRQ developed and pilot
tested the Pharmacy Survey on Patient
Safety Culture with OMB approval
(OMB NO. 0935–0183; Approved 08/12/
2011). The survey is designed to enable
pharmacies to assess staff opinions
about patient and medication safety and
quality-assurance issues, and includes
36 items that measure 11 dimensions of
patient safety culture. AHRQ made the
survey publicly available along with a
Survey User’s Guide and other toolkit
materials in October 2012 on the AHRQ
Web site.
The AHRQ Pharmacy Survey on
Patient Safety Culture (Pharmacy SOPS)
Comparative Database consists of data
from the AHRQ Pharmacy Survey on
Patient Safety Culture. Pharmacies in
the U.S. are asked to voluntarily submit
data from the survey to AHRQ, through
its contractor, Westat. The Pharmacy
SOPS Database is modeled after three
other SOPS databases: Hospital SOPS
[OMB NO. 0935–0162; Approved 05/04/
2010]; Medical Office SOPS [OMB NO.
0935–0196; Approved 06/12/12]; and
Nursing Home SOPS [OMB NO. 0935–
0195; Approved 06/12/12] that were
originally developed by AHRQ in
response to requests from hospitals,
medical offices, and nursing homes
interested in knowing how their patient
safety culture survey results compare to
those of other similar health care
organizations.
Rationale for the information
collection. The Pharmacy SOPS survey
and the Pharmacy SOPS Comparative
Database will support AHRQ’s goals of
promoting improvements in the quality
and safety of health care in pharmacy
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 32 (Tuesday, February 18, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9206-9209]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-03191]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
[Notice-OGP-2014-01; Docket 2014-0002; Sequence 6]
GSA's Travel Data Challenge Competition
AGENCY: Office of Government-wide Policy, General Services
Administration.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce a challenge
competition hosted by GSA's Office of Government-wide Policy that will
begin on February 14th, 2014. The competition will be open until April
11, 2014. The competition details can be viewed at
www.challengepost.com on or after February 14th. The goal of this
challenge is to ask the public to develop a smart technology solution
that has the capability to provide agencies with key insights and
recommendations for cost savings behaviors related to travel. GSA will
challenge solvers to create a tool using sample GSA travel data that
can then be replicated across Government to aid agencies in making
smarter travel decisions. Furthermore, GSA will ask members of the
public to provide recommendations for improvement in data collection.
DATES: February 18, 2014.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Katherine Pearlman at
katherine.pearlman@gsa.gov or 202-738-2591.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. General Services Administration
(GSA) manages a broad portfolio of key, government-wide operations and
policies. In managing this portfolio, GSA has access to extensive
government operations data--data which may hold potential solutions to
some federal agencies' most pressing problems. GSA's Office of
Government-wide Policy, sponsor of the Travel Data Challenge, is
looking to bring a quantitative approach to the data the federal
government collects in order to help agencies make smarter business
decisions, and to allow them to drive greater saving and efficiencies.
Pursuing this goal supports several of GSA's highest priorities in
serving our partners, including delivering better value and savings,
and leading with innovation.
In this GSA Travel Data Challenge, the public is asked to develop a
technology-driven solution using GSA travel data that allows an agency
to identify opportunities to reduce costs. As such, GSA challenges the
public to create a tool using GSA travel data that could be replicated
across government to every agency, using their own travel data. Sample
data sets with GSA travel data will be provided. However, in order to
solve the key purpose of this competition, challenge solvers should
address how the tool can be replicated using travel data from other
agencies. This tool is intended to show agencies where and how they can
save money on federal travel. The tool is not intended to publicly
display any agency's travel data and users will need to log in via a
certified username and password to interact with the tool. One of the
key purposes of the tool will be to provide agencies with visibility
into their travel spending and recommendations for cost-savings
behaviors. In addition, the tool will enhance internal transparency and
hold agencies accountable for their spending--steps which help to save
money for American taxpayers.
A second part of the GSA Travel Data Challenge asks the public to
identify specific gaps in the travel data collected by the government,
and to provide recommendations for how the government can improve
insights into federal travel spending through additional data
collection. The purpose for this information is to gain an
understanding of what the government could do with additional data
elements, if those data elements were to be collected by agencies. This
will help increase awareness of needed improvements in data collection,
and further the goal of leading greater transparency into government
spending.
Details of Challenge
Design and create a digital interactive tool that utilizes federal
travel data collected by GSA, in coordination with any other publicly
available data sets. The technology tool should be innovative! GSA does
not want an analysis tool that tells what is already known. This should
be a forward-thinking tool that enhances transparency and helps to hold
agencies accountable for what they are spending on travel, while also
providing agencies with recommendations for how to reduce costs.
The tool should visually display data to provide meaningful
insights that can help drive smarter travel decisions by federal
employees. The ultimate goal is to help federal agencies drive cost
saving behaviors in travel through easy to understand information. The
tool should accomplish two tasks:
(1) Visually display data in a way that will show agencies how and
where they are spending money on travel, and
(2) Through analysis of the data, show primary categories or cost
drivers that can enable federal agencies to reduce and/or contain
official travel costs compared to appropriate benchmarks (as determined
through research as well as the sample data provided). Focus on
attributes that consistently result in the travelers acquiring the
lowest cost of a trip. Use this information to benchmark historical
data against real time planning and provide action items to help travel
managers monitor and improve traveler behaviors, resulting in greater
travel savings through transparency. Finally, identify valuable
insights that could be gained through improved data collection efforts.
Examples of Questions That Submissions to the GSA Travel Data Challenge
Should Answer Include
Are travelers booking airline reservations far in advance to secure
low cost airfare? How many days in advance are travelers booking their
trips, taking into consideration industry standards and benchmarks? For
example, is there a correlation between booking time and cost?
Are travelers utilizing travel services, such as
FedRooms[reg]?
Are travelers booking online?
With regard to data visibility issues, is key data being missed?
Highlight where data is missing, e.g., where a traveler
[[Page 9207]]
may have not used our existing systems, therefore, data is lacking.
What data elements are missing that could be valuable to an agency
travel manager or chief financial officer?
How much could an agency save if they adjusted one or a set of
cost-driving behaviors such as, time of year of travel, booking online,
travel to certain cities during certain times, booking in advance?
Data
Challenge solvers will be provided with sample data sets to use in
designing the tool. The tool should have the capability to be updated
with data from additional agencies, making the tool scalable, dynamic,
and configurable. Challenge solvers should not be limited to only the
data provided. Be creative and use other public data sets that can give
users a better understanding of their travel options. Document all data
sources and explain why they are useful. Examples of additional
resources include data.gov, City Pairs, per diem rates, and Fedrooms
property lists. You are encouraged to conduct research in order to find
other data sources that are publicly available.
Eligibility for Challenge
Eligibility to participate in the GSA Travel Data Challenge and win
a prize is limited to entities/individuals that:
(1) Have agreed to the rules of the competition as explained in
this posting. (2) Are either a private entity or individual, provided
further that in the case of a private entity, it is incorporated in and
maintains a primary place of business in the United States, and in the
case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, is a
citizen or permanent resident of the United States; and that the
participant is not a federal entity or federal employee acting within
the scope of employment. An individual or entity shall not be deemed
ineligible 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.
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, in an amount 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. Entrants are hereby advised that diligent care must be
taken to avoid the appearance of Government endorsement of Entrant's
competition participation and submission. Moreover, as is customary
when doing business with the Federal Government, Entrant may not refer
to GSA's use of your submission (be it product or service) in any
commercial advertising or similar promotions in a manner that states or
implies that the product or service being used is endorsed or preferred
by GSA or any other element of the Federal Government, or that the
Federal Government considers it to be superior to other products or
services. The intent of this policy is to prevent the appearance of
Federal Government bias toward any one product or service.
Entrant agrees that GSA's trademarks, logos, service marks, trade
names, or the fact that GSA awarded a prize to Entrant, shall not be
used by Entrant to imply direct GSA endorsement of Entrant or Entrant's
submission. Both Entrant 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 prizes but is not required to award all
three prizes if the judges determine that only one or two entries meet
the scope and requirements laid out for this challenge, or if the
Agency plans to only use code from one or two entries. Funding for this
GSA Travel Data Challenge award will come from the Office of
Government-wide Policy's FY2014 Budget and will be made to winner(s) of
the competition via electronic funds transfer, within 30 days of
announcement of the winner(s).
The prizes may include three awards:
Grand Prize: $35,000.
Runner up: $30,000.
Honorable mention: $25,000.
Requirements
The final product should be a tool that is housed online and can be
updated to include data sets from other agencies. Capabilities should
also include updating data in the most efficient time cycle, such as
monthly, quarterly, annually or as new information becomes available.
The final tool should be in Open Source Code. 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 tool must meet
following six 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; and
6. The licensed software cannot place restrictions on other
software that is distributed with it.
The winner(s) of the competition will, in consideration of the
prize 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 travel data and information that is publicly available
is included in the scope of this challenge. Summary-level sample data
will be provided.
[[Page 9208]]
Project Goals and Objectives
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goals Objectives
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Design a tool to aggregate, --Utilize visual aids such as charts and
synthesize, and display GSA's graphs to display data.
travel data in a way that is --Include capabilities for geospatial
easy to understand and will data visualization of data.
help drive cost-saving
behaviors.
--Create benchmarks and identify
behaviors that can help to lower costs.
Allow for easy updates to the --As new data is collected later on by
data. the Government, backend users must be
easily able to update the dashboards to
reflect these changes.
Allow for users to compare --Design an interactive dashboard with
data to appropriate which users can filter to view data in
benchmarks, across agencies the following ways:
and within one agency. 1. All travel data for one agency across
topic areas--cities traveled to, dates
traveled, extent of stay, cost of trip,
annual travel costs, monthly travel
costs, etc.
2. All data for one topic area across
agencies.
3. Agency data for one topic area as
compared to other specific, mission-
similar or size-similar agencies.
4. Agency data for one topic area as
compared to Governmentwide trends.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Milestones/Deliverables
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Milestone/deliverable
Date description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 11, 2014........................... Solver design due to GSA OGP.
May 9, 2014.............................. Winner(s) announced.
June 6, 2014............................. Prize(s) Awarded.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judging Criteria
Requirements
The solution must be an online, interactive tool that meets the
goals and objectives provided in this document.
The solution must be in open source code.
The solution must include documentation of all data sources used.
The solution must include a description of how the tool can be
updated with additional data from other agencies
The solver must provide recommendations to enhance Government
insights through improvements in data collection.
Submissions Will Be Judged Based on the Following Metric
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use of data to Valuable information
Criteria Technical competence provide effective Creativity/ and insights
and capabilities outcomes innovation regarding data
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description........... The tool addresses The tool aggregates, The tool exceeds any The solver provides
the primary goal of synthesizes and internal capability recommendations for
the challenge. It is displays travel data that GSA has for additional data
a finished product in a way that is analysis of travel elements to be
that can provide easy to understand, data through its collected by the
insightful analysis visually appealing, incorporation of Government. The
and show agencies and will help drive creative design solver identifies
how and where they understanding of elements and gaps in the data
are spending money current trends as innovative and utilizes
on travel. The tool well as capabilities.. external data
can provide recommendations for sources and
recommendations for future savings. research to aid the
cost-savings government in
behaviors. The tool setting future data
can be easily collection policies
updated with new
data by the back-end
user.
Weight................ 50%.................. 20%.................. 10%................. 20%.
Level 1............... Does not meet the Data is not used, or Lacks creativity and Information is not
goals and outcomes are off innovation. provided.
requirements of the base. Unsuitable for
challenge. use by the
government.
Level 2............... Meets few elements of Meets few elements of Shows little signs Information is
the requirements of the requirements of of creativity and lacking real
the challenge and the challenge and innovation. recommendations or
goes a short way goes a short way insights.
towards meeting the towards meeting the
goal of the goal of the
challenge. challenge.
Level 3............... Meets most of the Uses some of the data Is innovative or Information is
requirements provided by OGP, and/ creative in at useful and
outlined in the or other sources, least one insightful in at
challenge and but the outcomes meaningful way. least one
contributes to the presented through meaningful way.
overall goal of the the data are not of
challenge. a high quality.
Level 4............... Meets all Uses the data Is extremely Information is
requirements provided by OGP, as innovative and useful and provides
outlined in the well as other creative. the government with
challenge, and sources of data to some suggestions
provides substantial produce effective for future
contribution to the outcomes. improvement in data
goal of the collection.
challenge.
[[Page 9209]]
Level 5............... Solver product meets Uses the data Is extremely Information provided
all requirements provided by OGP as innovative and is extensive, well
outlined in the well as additional, creative, leading thought-out,
challenge and publicly-available to new insights and valuable, and
provides additional, data from a variety desirable outcomes. insightful.
unique, useful of sources to
capabilities that produce outstanding
meet the overall outcomes.
goal of the
challenge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judges
There will be six judges, each a senior career official of GSA with
expertise in government-wide policy, travel, information technology,
and/or acquisition. Each judge will award a score to each submission
and the winner(s) of the competition will be decided based on the
highest average overall score. GSA will also have a technical advisor
from Sabre, Inc who will assist the judges in evaluating the
submissions as needed. However, the technical advisor will not vote in
determining the prizes. Judges will only participate in judging
submissions for which they do not have any conflicts of interest.
Judges are: Anne Rung, GSA Associate Administrator for Government-
wide Policy--Craig Flynn, Director--Travel Policy Division, Office of
Government-wide Policy--Kris Rowley, GSA Office of the Chief
Information Officer--Tim Burke, GSA Federal Acquisition Service--Jon
Bearscove, GSA FAS Region 10--Sonny Hashmi--Acting Chief Information
Officer--GSA Technical Advisor: Sam Gilliland, Sabre Technologies.
Registration: Anyone intending to participate in the Travel Data
Challenge can register by contacting Katherine Pearlman via
katherine.pearlman@gsa.gov. Upon registration, you will be sent the
sample data sets to use in solving the challenge.
Submission of Entries
Entries must be submitted online via ChallengePost by 11:59 p.m.
EST on April 11th, 2014.
Dated: February 10, 2014.
Anne Rung,
Associate Administrator, Office of Government-wide Policy, General
Services Administration.
[FR Doc. 2014-03191 Filed 2-14-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-14-P
