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Today's Top Stories
1. GAO upholds Verizon protest against GSA wireless contract vehicle
2. VA plans to gather treatment data through PTSD app
3. NASA using challenges to craft APIs
4. FCC blames GPS stakeholders for LightSquared conditional waiver
5. FCC unveils mHealth initiatives Editor's Corner: The chicken, the egg and APIs Also Noted: Box
Want an NIH grant to build a better mobile health app?; Smartphone platform adoption by the numbers; and much more...  Follow @fiercegov on Twitter
More News From the FierceMobileGovernment Network:
1. Social media an important foreign policy tool, says State Department official
2. Continuing resolution will fund government through March 26
3. Few OMB AcqStat meetings so far
| This week's sponsor is Box. | | With tight security mandates for cloud-based content management solutions, cloud solutions must integrate security into every phase of daily operations and product usage. Learn how Box can meet the needs of your mobile and collaborative workforce, while ensuring the security of your data with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Download this white paper today!
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The chicken, the egg and APIs
 Agencies are using application programming interfaces as the backbone for mobile app development. The General Services Administration feels APIs are so closely tied to the governmentwide mobility push it just wrapped its third webinar in a series dedicated just to the subject of APIs.
Its outreach efforts are in full swing as it tries to help agencies wrangle their data into APIs and in November, the White House will release "robust and thorough" requirements for agency use of APIs. Agencies are taking several approaches to API development. Some are looking for quick wins by inserting API requirements into contract language for new systems. Others are already using web content management systems that make producing APIs a fairly painless additional step. And it's likely many will take advantage of a new tool GSA plans to roll out in November that enables CSV files to be automatically converted to XML and JSON for APIs. One novel approach used by NASA invokes the chicken and egg debate: Which came first, the API or the hackathon? -->READ THE FULL EDITOR'S CORNER Read more about: GSA, API, Census Bureau
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Today's Top News 1. GAO upholds Verizon protest against GSA wireless contract vehicle
 An effort by the General Services Administration to establish a governmentwide contract vehicle for wireless services suffered a substantial setback Sept. 17 from a Government Accountability Office bid protest that came down on the side of Verizon Wireless.
Verizon Wireless was a respondent to a Nov. 15 request for quotations issued by GSA in the expectation of setting up a schedules-based blanket purchase agreement that acquisition agency officials estimated would generate $1.6 billion worth of orders over 5 years. The company--a joint venture of Verizon Communications and U.K.-based Vodafone--took issue with four solicitation terms, stating that none are a customary commercial practice. Because the acquisition was for commercial items, GSA is constrained by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (Part 12) not to deviate from those practices. In the protest decision (.pdf) GAO protest attorneys say Verizon is correct in all four cases, or at least that GSA didn't demonstrate market research to show how the terms have been utilized in other commercial transactions. The RFQ called for wireless providers to lower prices for government blanket purchase agreement any time it offers prices 10 percent lower to any other entity "for service(s) comparable to those provided under this BPA." A condition of getting a GSA schedule in the first place is agreeing to comparably adjust government market prices downward whenever a select group of schedule contractors' commercial customers called the "basis of award" receive a lower price, a condition known as the price reduction clause. But the RFQ terms differ from the price reduction clause by not including any exclusions for a downward price adjustment when the terms and conditions or technical requirements differ between the government market and deals offered to other entities. The fact that the RFQ would require price adjustments whenever lower prices are offered, as opposed to accepted, is also a deviation from commercial practices, the decision states. Verizon also contested a RFQ clause requiring vendors to deem orders for wireless products and services placed under other contract vehicles to have in fact occurred under the blanket purchase agreement, and so ensure that all orders from government customers receive BPA pricing and terms and conditions. That would have the effect of modifying all existing contracts, Verizon argued--and GAO attorneys say that GSA couldn't provide specific examples where such a clause has been used, ever. GSA didn't even respond to another Verizon objection over a RFQ requirement for applying unused minutes from one device' s usage plan to another's on a proportional basis before charging excess-use rates, GAO attorneys say in the decision. (GSA at this point of the protest focused on trying to have the protest tossed out on the grounds of untimeliness, a gambit that obviously didn't work.) Finally, attorneys side with Verizon in finding that a requirement to deactivate international roaming is not a customary commercial practice. GAO attorneys say GSA should remove the four provisions and request new quotations--or, if the provisions are truly needed, then document their presence in commercial transactions elsewhere or get a waiver from the FAR requirement to follow customary commercial practice. Bid protest decisions technically aren't binding on agencies, but agencies rarely don't follow GAO attorney recommendations. Years can go by without an agency undertaking GAO bid protest recommendations. For more:
- download the bid protest decision, B-406854; B-406854.2 (.pdf) Related Articles:
GSA used Wikipedia for ETS2 market research, says CWTSatoTravel motion
Simplified acquisition procedures pilot authority expires
Few OMB AcqStat meetings so far Read more about: Federal Acquisition Regulation, mobile devices, price reduction clause
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2. VA plans to gather treatment data through PTSD app
 The Veterans Affairs Department plans to expand its PE Coach mobile app, which helps patients suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, to gather data on PTSD symptoms and outcomes.
Currently, PE Coach lets patients record therapy sessions as audio files and helps them keep track of tasks and symptoms. It also guides them through breathing exercises, but doesn't itself provide treatment and isn't a self-help tool, VA says. In a solicitation on FedBizOpps that closed Sept. 19, VA says a new PTSD application suite will be able to gather data and measure PTSD symptoms. The department plans to use the data to improve clinical services. For now, VA is seeking a contractor to help it assess PE Coach by observing the app's use by focus groups composed of five to 10 veterans. (PE stands for prolonged exposure, a type of PTSD therapy.) Through the focus groups, VA aims to measure participants' PTSD symptoms, ability to manage PTSD reminders, and user experiences. The app is being evaluated as is, and the contractor won't work on designing or enhancing the app. But the contractor--a clinical psychologist and administrative staff--will support VA's efforts to develop the app to gather symptom data. Data will be retrieved manually in the assessment of the current app, through the focus groups and questionnaires, says the solicitation. For more:
- go to the solicitation on FedBizOpps Related Articles:
VA, DoD release new mental health app
VA, DoD healthcare apps prepare for next wave of features Read more about: fedbizopps
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3. NASA using challenges to craft APIs
 Agencies are looking for ways to create application programming interfaces, or APIs, not only because the White House's digital government strategy requires them to make at least two existing major customer-facing services available as an API, but because APIs can serve as the foundation for the mobile applications the digital strategy demands.
Codeathons are one strategy agencies can use to generate APIs, said Nick Skytland, program manager of the open innovation program at NASA, during a Sept. 19 webinar hosted by the General Services Administration's DigitalGov University. During its Space Apps Challenge this April, NASA sorted through 101 solutions and several were APIs. One of the six winners was Exo API, a tool that provides access to exoplanet data through a simple RESTful API, which allows users to build their own custom data sets. "Even if you don't have the in-house expertise to create your own API, just putting the challenge out there is enough to actually engage people who might be willing to help you out and who have the expertise," said Skytland during the webinar. The Exo API is "so well done that we hope to work with folks like this in the future to make more of the data that we have accessible," he added. Another API emerged from the challenge called ISS Live. The REST API uses International Space Station information consisting of space station system parameters and crew timeline data. The submission also included a software development kit and a demo webapp to help application developers use the REST API easily. Skytland suggested that agencies using challenges to formulate their APIs keep licensing and ownership in mind. His agency doesn't actually own the APIs submitted in the challenge. Space Apps Challenge participants were required to develop using an open source license in order to be considered in the competition. "We were actually able to work with the lawyers at NASA to develop a broad range of licenses that you could submit it under," said Skytland. "There's a number of different open source licenses, as you're probably aware. NASA actually has its own called the NASA open source software agreement, but there are other, more popular ones like Apache." For more:
- go to the webinar page (includes description and speaker bios)
- watch part 1 and part 2 an archived video of the webinar Related Articles:
Agency API maturity varies significantly
NRC identifies new mobile services, APIs
Commerce, Education and EPA seek API guidance Read more about: Nick Skytland, Space Apps Challenge
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4. FCC blames GPS stakeholders for LightSquared conditional waiver
The Federal Communications Commission issued LightSquared a conditional waiver to operate because, despite numerous opportunities to do so, the GPS industry failed to inform the commission of receiver overload issues in a timely manner, said Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC's office of engineering and technology. The GPS industry did, however, participate extensively throughout the LightSquared proceedings and raised other interference issues that were later resolved, Knapp told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations Sept. 21. The commission did not recognize the problem earlier because it does not regulate GPS devices and cannot test such devices or determine their capabilities and interference issues, said Knapp. Instead it relies on stakeholder input. "The lack of technical data provided in response to earlier commission proceedings prevented us from addressing that issue," he said. "The GPS industry consistently failed, through several proceedings, to specifically notify the FCC of receiver overload problems or concerns until briefly referencing the issue in comments related to the July 2010 MSS notice of proposed rulemaking and notice of inquiry and then again in response to the November 2010 waiver request," said Mindel De La Torre, chief of the FCC's international bureau. In January 2011 the FCC issued LightSquared a conditional waiver to operate under the condition that it resolved GPS interference issues. National Telecommunications and Information Administration later determined LightSquared's operation in the "L band" of spectrum caused unacceptable interference to GPS, causing FCC to revoke conditional approval. LightSquared's 40 megahertz of spectrum remains unused and the company has filed for bankruptcy. For more:
- go to the hearing page (includes prepared testimony and archived webcast) Related Articles:
Spotlight: FCC pulls support for LightSquared
LightSquared participated in testing, says DOT official
LightSquared GPS interference cannot be solved, say federal agencies
LightSquared: GPS, DoD, FCC at fault for interference Read more about: LightSquared, Mindel De La Torre
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5. FCC unveils mHealth initiatives
The Federal Communications Commission Sept. 24 committed to immediate action on the mHealth Task Force's findings and recommendations (.pdf) for enabling greater use of wireless and broadband technology in healthcare. The report, also released Sept. 24, proposes "a bold and important national goal," said FCC Chairman Juluis Genachowski Sept. 24 while speaking at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington, D.C. The commission's action on the report should help "make the use of mHealth technology a routine medical best practice within five years," he said. The task force behind the report is comprised of healthcare and wireless stakeholders who began working together following the mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. this June. According to an FCC fact sheet, the commission will: - Before year end propose an order to streamline experimental licensing rules to encourage wireless health "test beds";
- before year end propose an order to allow medical facilities to band together when applying for program funds for broadband, electronic health record and data collection projects;
- encourage international counterparts to free up spectrum for medical body area network, or MBAN, (as the FCC has) to incentivize device makers; and
- create a position for a permanent FCC health care director.
Genachowski told event attendees the FCC was still reviewing other recommendations from the report, and could later announce more planned action from the commission. For more:
- download the report, "mHealth Task Force Findings and Recommendations: Improving care delivery through enhanced communications among providers, patients and payers," (.pdf)
- read Genachowski's remarks
- read the fact sheet Related Articles:
FCC plans to free up spectrum to goose mobile health innovation
Mobile devices can streamline healthcare, say panelists
VA, DoD release new mental health app Read more about: FCC Chairman
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Also Noted | This week's sponsor is Box. | | Government IT leaders are increasingly turning to cloud-based solutions that centralize and control information, as well as meet the needs of today's highly mobile and collaborative workforce. Learn how Box delivers on the promise of cloud and mobility with secure collaboration that mitigates risk and reduces the cost of maintaining legacy file servers. Download this overview today!
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> Want an NIH grant to build a better mobile health app? Article (O'Reilly Strata Blog)
> DOD's mobility strategy a push-pull between radios and COTS devices. Article (Defense Systems)
> Soldier battle JTRS: The HMS radio set. Article (Defense Industry Daily)
> Will new phone networks hold up? Article (WSJ)
> Smartphone platform adoption by the numbers. Post (MobileGov Blog) And Finally... The 2012 European Beard and Moustache Championships. Photogallery (The Telegraph) > Whitepaper: Mobile Device Management for Box Accounts Government today is increasingly collaborative and highly mobile, with a growing number of workers accessing agency content outside the office. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management reports nearly 114,000 federal employees, or 5.7% of the federal workforce, spends some time teleworking. A comprehensive mobile strategy isn’t a nice-to-have, anymore – it’s a necessity. Learn how Box can help. Download this Whitepaper today! > Whitepaper: Empowering Your Mobile Workers Today’s most productive employees are mobile, and your agency’s IT strategy has to be ready to support them with easy, reliable, 24/7 access to the information they need, across a broad range of communication devices. Learn how your agency can meet the many needs of your mobile workers - without overwhelming your IT department. Download this whitepaper now! > Survey: Federal IT Reform Please take a moment to participate in our brief 15 question 'Federal IT Reform Survey' where we will take a look at security policies, compliance concerns and budget management issues. All participants will receive a free summary report and we will donate $5 to Fisher House in support of military families for each of the first 100 completed surveys. CLICK HERE to get started. | ©2012 FierceMarkets This email was sent to ignoble.experiment@arconati.us as part of the FierceMobileGovernment email list which is administered by FierceMarkets, 1900 L Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 628-8778.
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