NASA Announcement for Partnering Opportunities for Delivery of NASA Content To The Public

Synopsis – Jul 13, 2012

General Information

Solicitation Number: NNH12NG001O
Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012
FedBizOpps Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012
Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No
FedGrants Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012
Application Due Date Explanation: Responses to this announcement are due by 5 p.m. EST on August 3, 2012.
Classification Code: A — Research and Development
NAICS Code: 518210

Grant Specific Information

Funding Instrument Type: Other
CFDA Number: 43.009
Cost Sharing or Matching Required: No
Estimated Total Program Funding: not available
Expected Number of Awards: not available
Ceiling Amount: none
Floor Amount: none
Funding Activity: Other (O)
We will be awarding Space Act Agreements from this announcement not contracts or grants and there will be no funding provided.
Eligible Applicants: 99 – Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Link to Full Announcement: http://www.nasa.gov/news/highlights/partnership.html

Contracting Office Address

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Description

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

NASA is releasing this announcement to identify potential partners who may benefit from the delivery of the Agency’s web videos, both live and on-demand, and other web content to support increased public access and awareness of NASA activities.

Since 2005, NASA has delivered streaming video coverage via the NASA Web Site (http://www.nasa.gov ) in partnership with several companies to meet public demand to see the launches and missions. During those times we have distributed more than 50 million streams of NASA Television with multiple peaks of more than 100,000 simultaneous users, going as high as 560,000 simultaneous users. These partnerships, which have since ended, have enabled NASA to disseminate our content to a much wider audience than we would have been capable of our own.

In the existing infrastructure without our delivery partners, NASA may have to cap the number of visitors and hours of web streaming coverage or eliminate it entirely for particular peak activities. This would force visitors to seek content from other venues that may or may not cover NASA missions. To avoid this situation, NASA seeks to broaden its ability to reach new audiences and numbers of people through access to multiple venues.

Therefore, NASA is seeking responses from those interested in supplementing NASA’s existing bandwidth in live streaming, on-demand streaming and web content delivery. NASA is open to a variety of approaches, whether they encompass all three areas or a more limited approach, such as streaming live video to handheld devices; offering video in high definition; or offering live chats synchronously with video.

Provision of this capability to NASA under a Space Act Agreement requires a benefit to the Partner. NASA is interested in learning how a Partner may benefit from the planned activity. NASA will not display company logos on NASA online properties solely for promotional purposes but will consider their use, along with other partner identifiers, as buttons or links from NASA online properties. NASA will not consider responses that include the placement or embedding of commercial advertisements, either for the respondent(s) or third parties, within NASA content. Nor will NASA consider responses that would allow respondent(s) to license the NASA logo or other visual identifiers.

Responses to this announcement are due by 5 p.m. EST on August 3, 2012.

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

NASA anticipates using its authority to enter into Space Act Agreements with any selected respondents in support of this activity (51 U.S.C. S 20113(e). Participation by respondents will be contingent upon selection by NASA and negotiation of a mutually acceptable Agreement. NASA reserves the right to select for Space Act Agreement all, some, or none of the responses. NASA and the NASA Enterprise Web Services contractor will handle the integration of the selected respondent’s(s’) in-kind solution with support from the respondent(s).

NASA reserves the right to select for Space Act Agreement all, some, or none of the responses to this announcement. All Agreements will be performed on a no-exchange of funds basis. In addition, respondents are responsible for financing their own activities related to submitting responses to this announcement.

Response Date: Electronic submissions must be received by 5 p.m. EST on August 3, 2012 via email to brian.dunbar@nasa.gov

Point of Contact: Mr. Brian Dunbar Telephone: (202) 358-0873 Email: brian.dunbar@nasa.gov

Evaluation Panel: Government personnel from NASA and NASA contractors may participate in the evaluation of responses. Any support contractor involved in the evaluation process shall be evaluated for conflicts of interest and will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure provisions to protect proprietary and business competitive sensitive information.

Award Date: Selection is anticipated by August 17, 2012.

Term of Agreement: NASA intends to enter into agreements under this announcement for a period not to exceed five years.

Submission Instructions: All responses under this Announcement must be emailed to brian.dunbar@nasa.gov. Paper submissions will not be reviewed. Submissions may be at any time before the response date. You are encouraged to submit as early as practicable during this time period.

NASA may suggest collaboration between respondents where it will enhance the effort, in which case the respondent(s) will be given the opportunity to consider participation with other respondents prior to being selected to discuss working together under a Space Act Agreement.

NASA will not issue paper copies of this announcement. Material submitted in response to this Announcement will not be returned.

II. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

1. Eligible Applicants

All categories of non-NASA U.S. institutions are eligible to submit. NASA is not accepting responses from foreign entities.

III. EVALUATION INFORMATION

Evaluation Criteria

The factors below are of equal importance.

1: Quality and Appropriateness of the Proposed Effort:

The overall merit, rationale, and suitability of the proposed cooperation –its relevance to NASA’s mission and benefit to the Partner. Highest priority will be placed on an approach or concept that will create a positive image for NASA, both from presentation and technological perspectives.

2: Level of Commitment to and Past Experience with Web Video Streaming

The demonstrated ability of the respondent to meet streaming estimates based on past performance. The commitment of dedicated streaming bandwidth (measured in terms of gigabits per second [gbps] ) for both baseline traffic and peak traffic will be evaluated. NASA and its partners have seen peaks in excess of 440 gigabits per second with over 560,000 concurrent users and a total of more than 1.5 petabytes of streaming content delivered during a two-week period. Consideration will be given to the ease of interoperability with existing NASA infrastructure and the NASA Web Site. Consideration will be given to creative approaches that increase the dissemination of NASA streaming video content. Consideration will be given for accommodation of disabled users and the ability to meet requirements under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

3: Level of Commitment to and Past Experience with Web Content Delivery

The demonstrated ability of the respondent to meet content delivery estimates based on past performance. The commitment of dedicated bandwidth (measured in terms of gigabits per second [gbps] ) for both baseline traffic and peak traffic will be evaluated. The technical infrastructure available to support the peaks created by demand for content will be also considered. NASA and its partners have seen peaks in excess of 12 gigabits per second for web content delivery. Consideration will also be given to the ease of interoperability with existing NASA infrastructure and the NASA Web Site. Consideration will also be given for accommodation of disabled users and the ability to meet requirements under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

4: Benefit to the Partner

The compatibility of the NASA interest with the planned benefit to the Partner. This includes compatibility of NASA’s values with those of the Partner and the ability of NASA to participate in the benefit to the Partner as dictated by federal law and policies. The Partner should include a plan for preventing the inappropriate use of NASA’s name and logo.

IV. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Page Limitations Title ~ Total Pages Response Cover Page ~ 1 Response Title Page ~ 1 Points of Contact ~ 1 Response Abstract ~ 750 words Response Detail ~ 20

Pages in excess of the page limitations for each section will not be evaluated. A page is defined as one (1) sheet 8 x 11 inches using a minimum of 12-point font size for text and 8-point for graphs.

The response must include the following sections, in this order:

Response Cover Page: Solicited Response Application – Title of Announcement and Submission Contact Information

Response Title Page, with Notice of Restriction on Use and Disclosure of Response Information, if any.

Points of Contact: List contact information for Respondent Point of Contact and Technical Point of Contact. Provide: a. Name b. Title c. Address d. Phone and Fax e. Email

Response Abstract: Brief Abstract

Response Detail: The response shall contain sufficient detail to enable reviewers to make informed judgments about the overall merit of the proposed effort and about the probability that respondent will accomplish their stated level of commitment to the web video streaming. In addition, the response shall clearly explain respondent’s expected return for its participation in this activity. This section should expand on the topics in the response abstract and follow the format below:

1: Quality and appropriateness of the proposed effort.

Provide a description of the proposed goals and objectives, including a description of the business the respondent engages in, specific qualifications, products, services, and how this relates to NASA Mission. Provide a description of the respondent’s proposed link/button/display, or other characteristics, if any.

2: Level of Commitment to Web Video Streaming

Provide a description of the level of commitment in the form of gigabits per second being contributed to the streaming effort which include any guarantees, both for steady-state “baseline” and for peak capacity.

Provide the following details related to the web video streaming commitment:

1. Will contributions be required from NASA (e.g., encoded video streams)?

2. How will the response address the variety of formats and platforms available to the public? Will all services and material be available via the respondent to users of different operating systems (e.g., Apple or Microsoft) or platforms (e.g., computer or handheld device[s] )?

3. Will users of a particular system or platform have to take some action (e.g., download a player or plug-in) to receive content via the respondent?

4. Will users be expected to pay to receive content?

5. If users are expected to pay, what additional value will the respondent provide to users beyond what is already being delivered by NASA?

6. Are there other formats that the respondent is willing to provide?

7. Does the respondent have the ability to encode video via a satellite transmission?

8. Provide details as to the bandwidth encoding levels the respondent supports by media format.

9. If the respondent includes encoding, how many different feeds does the respondent intend to support?

10. If the respondent includes encoding, how many simultaneous encoder streams per feed does the respondent intend to maintain?

11. Who will be responsible for creating, maintaining and rotating any required browser-linking files (e.g., .asx, .qtl, etc.) to allow connections? (NASA’s preference is to provide a url rather than to provide actual connector files on its website.

12. What quality control process does the respondent use to monitor the quality of the service provided?

13. What failover method of encoded ingress connections does the respondent intend to use?

14. What performance guarantees are included? (i.e. infrastructure, levels of performance, etc…)

15. What are the respondent’s risk mitigation strategies?

16. What statistics/metrics, including raw log files, will be provided to NASA pertaining to the streams distributed?

17. Provide a brief description of the technical infrastructure with maximum capacities available or to be deployed within 30 days of the formal Agreement execution date.

18. Provide any additional proposed in-kind efforts to increase public access to NASA content.

19. Demonstrate past performance in achieving proposed levels of commitment.

3: Level of Commitment to Web Content Delivery

Provide a description of the level of commitment in the form of megabits per second being contributed to the content delivery which include any guarantees, both for steady-state “baseline” and for peak capacity.

Provide the following details related to the web content delivery:

1. How will NASA content be delivered to the respondent?

2. How will the response address the variety of formats and platforms available to the public? Will all services and material be available via the respondent to users of different operating systems (e.g., Apple or Microsoft) or platforms (e.g., computer or handheld device(s)?

3. Will users of a particular system or platform have to take some action (e.g., download a player or plug-in) to receive content via the respondent?

4. Will users be expected to pay to receive content?

5. If users are expected to pay, what additional value will the respondent provide to users beyond what is already being delivered by NASA?

6. What quality control process does the respondent use to monitor the quality of the service provided?

7. What methods will the respondent use to match NASA’s own level of 99.995 percent uptime?

8. What performance guarantees are included? (i.e. infrastructure, levels of performance, etc…)

9. What are the respondent’s risk mitigation strategies?

10. What statistics/metrics, including raw log files, will be provided to NASA pertaining to the streams distributed?

11. How will the respondent address security concerns?

12. Provide a brief description of the technical infrastructure with maximum capacities available or to be deployed within 30 days of the formal Agreement execution date.

13. Provide any additional proposed in-kind efforts to increase public access to NASA content.

14. Demonstrate past performance in achieving proposed levels of commitment.

4: Benefit to the Partner

Provide a full, detailed description of the benefit that will be sought as part of the cooperation. Explicitly acknowledge the restrictions on advertisements and licensing mentioned above.

Point of Contact
Name: Mr. Brian Dunbar
Title: Internet Services Manager
Phone: 202-358-0873
Fax: 202-358-4210
Email: brian.dunbar@nasa.gov