Synopsis: E67814X: NSB Webcasts

BACKGROUND

The National Science Foundation (NSF) was established by Congress through the NSF Act of 1950, as an independent agency of the Federal government “ to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare; and to secure the national defense.” The legislation states that, “The Foundation shall consist of the National Science Board and a Director.”

The National Science Board’s dual responsibilities are:

• To establish the policies of the National Science Foundation and
• To serve as an advisory body to the President and the Congress on policy issues related to science and engineering, research and education.

The NSB meets five times a year (usually four at the NSF headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and one in another part of the country). It also conducts targeted, subject specific workshops, discussions, conferences, receptions, ceremonies, and other events throughout the year.  In addition to the Board members, these meetings/events are attended by renowned scientists and educators, university presidents, congressional members, senior government officials, NSF officials and other individuals/stakeholders from private and public institutions.

Communications Objective and Strategies

The National Science Board (NSB, Board) employs a variety of communications strategies intended to spotlight the NSB’s role as a policy advising body to the Congress and the President.  As such, the communications objective is to target identified constituencies/stakeholders in order to increase awareness about the Board, its roles and responsibilities and resulting products that include studies and reports on a broad range of significant science and engineering, research and education policy topics.

Target Audience/Stakeholders

The Board’s key stakeholders are those groups that are directly affected by the Board’s actions in its mission to promote the progress of science and engineering, research and education. Both internal and external stakeholders will be defined and addressed in this plan.  The Board’s internal stakeholders are NSF management and staff. The external group of stakeholders is larger and more complicated as they are comprised of several distinct groups that will require specific and targeted types of communications about the Board and from the Board.  Identified groups include:

• Congressional members and staff, including appropriate subcommittee members and staff;
• White House staff and Office of Science and Technology Policy leadership;
• Other Federal agencies and organizations;
• Science and engineering communities; and
• Constituents/general public;
• Educators;
• Professional scientific societies;
• The so-called, “interested public” or those who possess a proclivity for information about science and engineering; and
• The so-called “uninterested public” or those without a natural affinity for science, but who may be reached through general outreach via new and innovative means of communication.

In order to achieve the objective of increasing stakeholder awareness, the National Science Board seeks the use of webcast technologies to increase stakeholder knowledge, access and awareness of Board activities by webcasting meetings.

SCOPE OF WORK

To efficiently and effectively communicate the work of the Board, the National Science Board Office (NSBO) requires contractual support to provide end-to-end Webcast services for Board meetings.  Board meetings are held on two-consecutive days, each day averages 6-8 hours in duration, depending on the meeting’s agenda. Some portions of the Board meetings are open to the public and some are closed, i.e. not open to the public.  The contractor shall only webcast the open portions of Board meetings.  The Board meeting agenda will outline with portions of the meetings that are opened or closed.

The contractor will provide the necessary equipment and personnel to produce, webcast, videotape and cover the entire Board meeting with multiple speakers from the NSF headquarters on July 28-29, 2011 and December 13-14, 2011.  The webcast contractor will be responsible for providing all equipment and videotaping the meetings that are held in the National Science Board Conference Room at the NSF headquarters.

NSBO requests a portal page on the contractor server with summary options.  On-site, audio and Internet participants will be required to register on-line including a complete mailing address, phone and e-mail address.  The contractor may be asked to provide reports concerning the number of Webcast participants during and after the briefing.  Sign in options may be waived after selection, but should be included in contractor’s bid.  The portal page will simultaneously display the PowerPoint presentations and presenters.  PowerPoint Presentations will be submitted to the successful contractor not later than 24 hours before the live production.

The running format should be in both Real Time Media and Windows Media.  Participants with limited bandwidth who are unable to view the video stream shall be able to access and listen to the briefing via audio conference and follow the PowerPoint slides on the web.  Closed captioning shall be provided for the live and archived presentation.  NSF anticipates that 200 to 1,000 simultaneous participants will access the website during the meetings and about 80 onsite participants.  The contractor shall provide live and backup tapes for video archiving.  The video should be archived for a full year after the date of the event.

The National Science Board Office will:

• Provide access to conference room and related facilities 1-2days prior to the Board meeting;
• Assign an on-site NSBO internal point of contact for each meeting;
• Provide meeting agendas 1 week before the board meeting;
• Provide dates/schedules for meetings and events;
• Provide publications and reports to be mailed to internal and external stakeholder; and
• Publicize the Webcasts URL

SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES

• The contractor shall schedule and meet with the NSBO COTR and/or other key NSBO staff members one week after task order is issued;
• Work plans and schedules based on meeting are due within one week, or as directed by COTR or designated program manager.  These work plans and schedules will encompass in entirety the work to be performed by the contractor.

Materials and personnel estimated for this project are::

• Three cameras (Beta SP or DV Cam) with small switcher, audio board, scando and microphones;
• Personnel: three camera people, one technical director and one audio person, two encoders (one primary and one back up) and one encoding technician.

The contractor will be required to participate in a meeting or conference call with designated NSBO staff and technical consultants prior to the event to finalize all arrangements.  The contractor will provide two copies of the unedited and edited Webcast in DVD format to NSF.

Offerors should provide three references and three web links to similar webcast services provided in the past.

Technical Evaluation Criteria:

• Quality of the plan to provide the scope of work in accordance with the requirements listed above;
• Past performance on projects of similar scope and requirements;
• Satisfaction of identified Section 508 requirements for accessibility and contractors’ availability and ability to provide equal or better services compliant with Section 508 for the Webcast.

Price Evaluation

Price will be evaluated for reasonableness.

Selection Criteria

NSF will make a source selection decision based on Best Value.  Award will be made to the responsible offeror whose quotation provides the greatest value to the Government after consideration and evaluation of all the factors.

Technical evaluation criteria are significantly more important than price.

Submission of Proposal

Proposals are due no later than 3:00pm, local Washington, D.C. time, July 11, 2011. Proposals are to be e-mailed to Jannele Gosey at jgosey@nsf.gov. No faxes will be accepted.