[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 119 (Thursday, June 22, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28472-28473]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-13001]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request: Challenge and Prize
Competition Solicitations Generic Clearance
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Commerce, has submitted an
Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This is a new ICR
to seek generic clearance for the collection of routine information
requested of responders to solicitations the Federal government makes
during the issuance of challenges and competitions posted on the
General Service Administration (GSA)'s Challenge.gov Web site. Comments
submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided
to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public on this ICR
during the review and approval period.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before July 24, 2017.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to [email protected] or fax
to (202) 395-5806.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: This information collection request
may be viewed at reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view
Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Challenge and Prize Competition Solicitations Generic
Clearance.
Proposed Project: Descriptive information of solutions provided to
the Federal government in response to Challenge and Competition
solicitations posted on Challenge.gov.--OMB Control Number: 0690-XXXX
(New collection), Office of the Secretary.
Abstract: This request seeks generic clearance for the collection
of routine information requested of responders to solicitations the
Federal government makes during the issuance of challenges and
competitions posted on the General Service Administration (GSA)'s
Challenge.gov Web site. Since passage of the America COMPETES Act of
2011. In order for DOC to quickly and effectively launch competitions
on a continual basis, DOC seeks generic clearance to collect
information for these challenges and competitions, which will generally
include first name, last name, email, city, state and when applicable
other demographic information, such as date of birth. It can also
include other information necessary to evaluate submissions and
understand their impact related to the general goals of the
competition. Upon entry or during the judging process, applicants under
the age of 18 may be asked to confirm parental consent, requiring
students under 18 to have a parent signature in writing on a parental
consent form provided by the Department in order to qualify for the
contest. For certain challenges we may also need to collect data such
as types of data sets used in the solution, types of software tools
used in the solution, and information regarding uses of proprietary
software (i.e., licenses or use agreements). Information obtained from
participants will be used by the program managers (challenge manager),
other agency officials (such as general counsel representatives) and in
some cases the technical reviewers acting on behalf of
[[Page 28473]]
the program manager (challenge manager).
Need and Proposed Use of the Information: In 2011, Federal agencies
including DOC were given prize authority for administering challenges
and competitions. Section 105(a) of the America Competes Act, adds
Section 24 to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980
(15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) that addresses provisions for challenges and
competitions with prizes conducted by Federal agencies. Challenges and
competitions enable DOC to tap into the expertise and creativity of the
public in new ways. DOC has sponsored challenges and competitions in a
wide variety of areas to increase public participation and solicit new
ideas on a wide array of topics important to the agency's mission.
DOC's goal is to engage a broader number of stakeholders who are
inspired to work on some of our most pressing issues.
The information collected will be used to understand whether the
participant has met the technical requirements for the challenge,
assist in the technical review and judging of the solutions that are
provided, and understand the impact and consequences of administering
the competition and developing solutions for submission. Information
may be collected during the competition or after its completion. The
submissions are evaluated by the submitting agency and typically prizes
(monetary and non-monetary) are awarded to the winning entries.
This clearance applies to challenges posted on Challenge.gov, which
uses a common platform for the solicitation of challenges from the
public. Each agency designs the criteria for its solicitations based on
the goals of the challenge and the specific needs of the agency. There
is no standard submission format for solution providers to follow.
We anticipate that approximately 250 challenges would be issued
each year by DOC. It is expected that other federal agencies will issue
a similar number of challenges. There is no set schedule for the
issuance of challenges; they are developed and issued on an ``as
needs'' basis in response to issues the federal agency wishes to solve.
The respondents to the challenges, who are participating voluntarily,
are unlikely to reply to more than one or several of the challenges.
Although in previous memoranda the GSA and Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) described circumstances whereby OMB approval of a PRA
request is not needed, program officials at DOC have identified several
sets of information that will typically need to be requested of
solution providers to enable the solutions to be adequately evaluated
by the program office issuing the challenge. These requests for
additional information have been suggested to require a PRA review as
they represent structured data requests.
There are three types of additional data that may routinely be
requested. These include the following:
Title and/or Subject of the submission. Due to the nature of the
submission and evaluation processes, it is important that a title and/
or subject be requested and submitted for each submission in order to
ensure the solution is correctly identified with its provider.
Identification of data resources. In many cases, the solution to a
problem will require the solution provider to use data resources.
Often, the nature of the data sets will be derived from Federal data
resources, such as data.gov. Evaluations of solutions will often depend
on the understanding of the selection of the data resource(s) used in
the solution.
Description of methodology. For effective judging and evaluation, a
description of the development methods for the solution to the
challenge will be requested. For instance, a prize may be awarded to
the solution of a challenge to develop an algorithm that enables
reliable prediction of a certain event. A responder could submit the
correct algorithm, but without the methodology, the evaluation process
could not be adequately performed.
Estimated Annualized Burden Table
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Average burden
Forms Number of responses per (in hours) per Total burden
respondents respondent response hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Individuals or Households....................... 500 1 10/60 83.3
Organizations................................... 500 1 10/60 83.3
Businesses...................................... 500 1 10/60 83.3
State, territory, tribal or local governments... 30 1 10/60 5
Federal government.............................. 30 1 10/60 5
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total....................................... 1,560 .............. .............. 255
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information collection request may be viewed at
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce
collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to [email protected] or fax to (202)395-5806.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-13001 Filed 6-21-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P