HSHQDC-16-SMTF-RFI
The Social Media Task Force is a high-level, DHS-wide effort responsible for examining how best to use social
media to fulfill DHS missions, while also protecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. .
2
Open source information represents publicly available information on the World Wide Web that is accessible to
the public..
3
Social media represents information that can be obtained from a variety of community platforms in accordance
with source privacy policies.
HSHQDC-16-SMTF-RFI
civil liberties-protecting analytic methods and technology that create value for (1) criminal
investigations, (2) screening and vetting of individuals or organizations traveling or seeking a
government benefit, (3) homeland security mission-related situation awareness applications and
(4) public affairs and outreach. DHS is seeking additional information from industry to assist
with the identification of transformational opportunities to improve mission and achieve
operational efficiencies and lower costs through advanced analytic automation for DHS and the
Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE).
2. PURPOSE OF THIS RFI
2.1 The purpose of this RFI is to ascertain available sources that can provide privacy, civil
rights and civil liberties-protecting open source and social media analytics capabilities and
technologies, including privacy protecting features, analytic architecture, computing, storage,
language, analytics, and visualization capabilities that are based on open source or commonly
available commercial technologies and represent technology options of high value to the future
of homeland security.
2.2 This RFI is intended to assist DHS in understanding the current status of industry sources,
business practices, technical capacity, and operational capability to inform potential acquisition
strategies. The responses to this RFI should contain descriptions of capabilities that represent
current products and/or capabilities that will be productized in the coming year. DHS is currently
interested in original product manufacturers only.
2.3 Information provided will be reviewed in accordance with Section 4 of this document. Up
to 30 select exemplars of social media analytics capabilities in the market place will be invited to
make a technology presentation to DHS including DHS component agencies, DHS oversight
offices (e.g., Privacy Office, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Office of General
Counsel, Office of Policy), and associated support contractors, as well as members of the DHS
Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee and related subcommittee
members at DHS. Presentations will be conducted at a location in the Washington D.C.
metropolitan area at the date and time specified in Section 4.2 below. Respondents not invited to
present may participate via webinar on a first come first serve basis. Invited presentations will be
considered as market research and will serve to broaden DHS understanding of the marketplace
for emerging privacy, civil rights and civil liberties-protecting open source and social media
analytics capabilities.
3. INFORMATION REQUESTED
3.1 Any information submitted in response to this RFI considered to be proprietary shall be
appropriately marked. Appropriate markings at a minimum must be header and footer on each
page proprietary information is included as well as a P in the margin where proprietary
information begins and brackets, [ ], at the beginning and end of the proprietary text. To facilitate
ease of review for DHS, respondents are asked to provide information in the order/format set
forth in the section 3 (i.e., provide Corporate Information first (3.2), followed by Technical
Information (3.3), etc.
HSHQDC-16-SMTF-RFI
Web Sources
Batch Loading
Analytics Capabilities
Language Processing
Media Processing (Image,
Speech, Video)
Geospatial Processing
Foreign Language
Capabilities
<Analytic Methodologies>
Analyst Interface
<User Interfaces>
HSHQDC-16-SMTF-RFI
Information Sharing
System Capabilities
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Integration Methods
Storage System
Streaming Capabilities
Data Management
Information Sharing
Information Security
[http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/e-gov/fea]), etc.).
HSHQDC-16-SMTF-RFI
3.3.4 Identify any underlying open source technology and/or standard(s) or other standards,
such as ISO, IEEE, industry, etc., to which each capability or product adheres.
3.3.5 Identify methods that are available in your solution for hardening the capability and/or
security features that are intrinsic to your capability to meet FISMA security standards for
private and/or government cloud deployment if relevant.
3.3.6 Provide a detailed description of the capability, its performance attributes, and its
differentiated position in the open source and social media analytics marketplace.
3.3.7 Describe your methods for ingesting data from social media source systems and open
sources, automatic application of metadata and other tags, and delivery to analysts and users in
near real time.
3.3.8 Address one (or more, if applicable) of the following four technical areas that relate to
open source and social media analytics as relevant to your solution:
3.3.8.1 Training Identify training, workshops, and experiences that can help government
analysts share best practices for protecting individual privacy, civil rights and liberties while
utilizing open source and social media data sources to improve DHS mission and operations
related to investigations, screening and homeland security mission-related situation awareness
applications. Emphasize methods for training analysts in understanding language and cultural
aspects of open source and social media. Include metrics that can be used to assess analytic
performance during training and recommended continuous training patterns associated with your
solution.
3.3.8.2 Privacy, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Protection Security, access, source
selection, data collection, analysis, correction, redress, and data removal methods that protect the
privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of individuals involved in open source and social media
communications. This includes, but is not limited to, automatic/automated US Person
Identification, role based access to information, user audit, system logging, policy enforcing
mechanisms, encryption, etc.
3.3.8.3 Open Source and Social Media Data Sources Identify data sources and platforms
that are provided as part of vendor capabilities and/or describe methods for ingesting [if relevant]
additional open source and social media data sources for use in analysis. Emphasize tools that
make the process of ingesting new data sources for analysis efficient. Describe any related
subscription services, specific sources, general sources, and limitations associated with data
sources. Describe how privacy and terms of use policies of different data sources are enforced
within the capability.
3.3.8.4 Social Media Analysis Capabilities Identify and describe analytic methods and
capabilities that address identity, geospatial, language, keyword, images, text image, spoken
language, video, clustering, network and other analytic technical capabilities that help analysis,
data scientists and/or other end users alike identify patterns, trends, and data segments of interest
in the context of homeland security investigative, screening and/or homeland security mission
HSHQDC-16-SMTF-RFI
related situation awareness missions including dynamic and continuous correlation; capabilities
that inherently manage information relationships and models; and agile analytics capabilities that
can help data scientists and/or end users identify and dynamically exploit emerging trends in data
sets and data flows. It is important to identify features of the system that aid in
understanding/diagnosing/improving the performance of analytic operations over time.
3.3.8.5 Open Source and Social Media Analytics Visual Interface visual capabilities for
helping users understand important relationships in large data sets (e.g., geospatial, graphs, word
clouds, heat maps, languages, media types, etc.); information access in mobile environments; and
capabilities that enable information sharing, including any visual depictions of large/complex
information.
3.3.8.6 Analytic system architecture, scale, speed and accuracy provide a description of
the system architecture including support for private, commercial and government, and hybrid
cloud instances. Identify technical methods by which the described capabilities scale to meet
increasing information needs as well as the impact of increasing scale on analytic performance in
terms of speed and accuracy. Identify system integration points for your capability and inventory
APIs and any other methods of integrating your solution with existing information systems.
Explain system instrumentation that will enable auditing data, computation, analytic, user and
other relevant computer security operations. Characterize the largest customer use case that is
operational in terms of numbers/types/locations of users, computing resources, storage, and
response times.
3.3.9 Provide an exemplar case study or success story where your open source and social
media capabilities were integrated with an investigative, screening, and/or homeland security
mission related situation awareness application that is relevant to homeland security. Explain key
design alternatives considered, challenges faced in achieving privacy, civil rights and civil
liberties compliance, system performance, analytic methodology, security and customer
satisfaction aspects of the use case.
3.3.10 Provide information on what Federal agencies and/or private entities have benefited
from your open source and social media capabilities and how your company is prepared to
deliver and service open source and social capabilities to a Federal agency that must comply with
privacy, civil rights and civil liberties compliance, information technology laws, regulations and
policies.
3.3.11 If selected to present, the Government requests that presenters have the technical
knowledge and experience to understand and answer complex questions from DHS. To ensure
active technical dialogue, the Government prefers presenters from the development/technology
side of the organization and not marketing or sales team type representatives for the
presentations. Provide a brief description of the qualifications of the individuals who will present
if your organization is selected. If available, provide links to specific presentation examples that
might be publically available, such as YouTube videos and TED talks on the Internet or videos
on your corporate website.
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5.1.2 Attached to the email, a maximum number of 15 pages per submission with Times New
Roman font greater than or equal to 12 pt. Electronic files larger than 5 MB shall be broken
down into multiple files with no one file exceeding 5 MB. Each electronic file shall be numbered
(e.g., File 1 of 4, File 2 of 4, etc.).
5.2 Interested parties should limit marketing material in order to allow sufficient space for
adequately, directly, and substantively responding with the information of most interest to the
Government.
5.3 Responses to this RFI may be reviewed by Government technical experts drawn from staff
within DHS including its component agencies, DHS oversight offices (e.g., Privacy Office,
Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Office of General Counsel, Office of Policy), and
associated support contractors, as well as members of the DHS Homeland Security Science and
Technology Advisory Committee and related subcommittee members. Any non-federal
participants in the review of submitted information will do so in accordance with a signed DHS
Non-disclosure Agreement. As stated above, all information submitted in response to this RFI is
the responders consent to share submissions with all those identified herein.
5.4 If selected to present, vendors will be required to sign a Gratuitous Services Agreement
for Open Source and Social Media Technology Presentations prior to being registered as a
presenter. All other vendors that are not presenting but participating in the webinar will be
required to comply with the Rules of Behavior for Open Source and Social Media Rules of
Behavior. This document will be provided at the time of webinar registration and must be
signed before authorized to complete registration.