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Commerce Business Apps Challenge
[March 02, 2012]

Commerce Business Apps Challenge


Mar 02, 2012 (Commerce Department Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- SUMMARY: A key mission of both the Department of Commerce (DOC) is to help U.S. businesses grow and create jobs. Recently, the White House launched the BusinessUSA Initiative (www.Business.USA.gov) to help further these goals. This notice announces the Commerce Business Apps Challenge (http://docbusinessapps.challenge.gov) which DOC is launching to encourage members of the public to develop, using at least one DOC data set, an application (Web, mobile, PC, etc.) that assists businesses and/or improves the service delivery of Business.USA.gov to the business community. Specifically, we're looking for innovative ways to use DOC and other federal data and program information to help businesses: * Learn about and evaluate opportunities, both here in the U.S. and internationally; * Access useful government services, data, and market information; * Fund business activities; * Support education and training, and * Facilitate or accelerate the pursuit of operating and growing their business.



This notice announces the BizApps Challenge and explains its terms and conditions, and prizes.

DATES: Contestants must register for the contest on this Web site by creating an account between February 22nd and April 30th, 2012. The judging period will run from May 1, 2012, 12 a.m. EDT to May 21, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EDT. DOC will announce contest winners on May 31, 2012, or soon thereafter.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gordon Keller, by phone at 202-482-2490, or via email at [email protected], or Mike Kruger, by phone at 202-482-2556, or via email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: To facilitate the public's awareness of the various types of DOC data available to businesses online and to enhance the usability and service delivery of the newly launched BusinessUSA Initiative (www.Business.USA.gov), DOC announces a contest, open to the public, to develop an application using at least one DOC data set, to assist businesses and/or improves the service delivery of Business.USA.gov to the business community.

You pick the technology* * * * The web * A personal computer * A mobile handheld device, or * Any platform broadly accessible to the open Internet * * *we provide the data (or at least some of it).

DOC offers a wealth of economic, demographic, environmental, weather, international trade, scientific research and program data and in this challenge, we require that you use at least one of our datasets in your application. This data can be layered and/or combined with any other federal, state, local or publicly available information or datasets that you wish. Below are listed some repositories for DOC and other federal data: * Commerce Data * U.S. Census Bureau--Population, household, housing, demographics. Economic census and monthly indicators, foreign trade, employment statistics, maps, geographic data and more.

[ ] http://www.census.gov/ [ ] http://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html * International Trade Administration (ITA)--International market research, export assistance services, market access assistance, trade agreements [ ] http://www.trade.gov [ ] http://www.export.gov * U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)-- www.uspto.gov * National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-- [ ] Climate Data-- http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html [ ] Weather Data-- http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ * National Technical Information Service (NTIS)--Database of research sponsored by the U.S. and select foreign governments.

[ ] http://www.ntis.gov/products/ntisdb.aspx * Economic Development Administration-- http://www.eda.gov * Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)-- http://www.bea.gov/itable/index.cfm * Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)-- http://www.bis.doc.gov/ * Economic and Statistics Administration (ESA)-- http://www.esa.doc.gov * National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)-- www.ntia.doc.gov * All DOC's data sets on Data.Gov: (http://www.data.gov/list/agency/1/0/catalog/raw/page/1/count/50) * www.Data.gov --repository for data and geodata from across the federal government, searchable by agency, data type, keyword, among others. Many, but not all Commerce data sets reside here.

* http://www.data.gov/business-- A business specific section of Data.gov (above), this Web site features business-related datasets and applications from across the federal government.

Also: * List of Open Data Sites Around the World: http://www.data.gov/opendatasites * Amazon Listing of Public Data Sets: http://aws.amazon.com/datasets * Washington DC: http://data.octo.dc.gov * New York: http://nyc.gov/data * San Francisco: http://datasf.org/ * U.K.: http://data.gov.uk/ These represent only a partial list of data repositories, and contestants are encouraged to use others as needed.

What's in it for you? The applications that best satisfy the competition criteria will receive cash prizes up to $5,000 for the first prize winner. We encourage contestants to combine DOC data with other publicly accessible data feeds from around the Web, and to be creative in exploring approaches for realizing the goals.

How To Enter Contestants must register for the contest on this Web site by creating an account between February 6 and April 30, 2012. Registrants will receive an email to verify their account and may then enter their submissions via the "Post a Submission" tab (Submissions).

1. Submissions may be any kind of software tool, be it for the Web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, or any platform broadly accessible to the open Internet.

2. A Submission may be disqualified if it does not function as expressed in the description or if it does not comply with the contest entry criteria (e.g., use of at least one DOC dataset).

3. All Submissions must be available for public use and evaluation by April 30, 2012 in order to be considered for judging purposes.

4. Once a Submission is made, the Contestant cannot make any changes or alterations to the Submission until the judging is complete. The approximate date by which the judging will be complete is May 21, 2012.

For all Submissions, the Contestant agrees that DOC will have the ability to release the code as open source at its discretion (see Rules for more details).

Important Dates Submission Period Start: February 6, 2012 12 a.m. EDT. End: April 30, 2012 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Judging Period Start: May 1, 2012 12 a.m. EDT. End: May 21, 2011 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Winners announced: May 31, 2011 12 a.m. EDT, or soon thereafter.

Judges An exclusive panel of high-profile judges will evaluate and vote on the entries. The panel includes: * John Bryson, Secretary of Commerce * Steven Van Roekel, Federal CIO * Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook * Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google * Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media * Vivek Kundra, Executive Vice President of Emerging Markets, Salesforce.com Judging Criteria 1. Use of DOC Data (20%) Does the application use a novel combination of relevant data sets, including at least one dataset from one of Commerce's bureaus? * Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) * Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) * U.S. Census Bureau * Economic Development Administration (EDA) * Economic and Statistics Administration (ESA) * International Trade Administration (ITA) * National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) * National Telecommunications Administration (NTIA) * National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) * National Technical Information Service (NTIS) * U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Note: All submissions must cite data sources and note calculations, derivation and mash-ups from the source(s).

2. Usability and Interface Design (20%) Is the application implemented in a functional and elegant fashion? 3. Relevance to Stated Objective (40%) Does the application meet the mission defined for this challenge? 4. Creativity Is the application and concept creative and interesting? (20%) Prizes First Place--$5,000 (1 prize) Second Place--$3,000 (1 prize) Third Place--$2,000 (1 prize) Official Rules Official Rules 1. Eligibility: The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)--DOC BizApps Challenge is open only to: (1) Citizens or permanent residents of the United States who are at least thirteen (13) years old at the time of entry (or teams of eligible individuals); and (2) private entities, such as corporations or other organizations, that are incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States. Individuals submitting on behalf of corporations, nonprofits, or groups of individuals (such as an academic class or other team) must meet the eligibility requirements for individual participants. An individual may join more than one team, corporation, or nonprofit organization. DOC employees and members of their immediate family (spouses, children, siblings, parents), and persons living in the same household as such persons, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in the Competition.

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below-- Notice.

Citation: "77 FR 12796" Document Number: "Docket No. 120127071-2071-01" Federal Register Page Number: "12796" "Notices"

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