Request for Proposals (RFP): Improvements to CienciaPR.

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RFP CIRCULATION DATE: November 6th, 2011 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 11th, 2011

Contents
Project Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Company Information ................................................................................................................................. 2 About Ciencia Puerto Rico................................................................................................................................... 2 Current Site Structure and Content .................................................................................................................... 3 Structure .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Main Components of CienciaPR.org................................................................................................................ 3 Audience/Members ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Site Statistics ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Improvements Sought................................................................................................................................. 5 Members Section ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Registration Security ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Member Database and Profiles ...................................................................................................................... 5 Member Search ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Member Changes Roll-out............................................................................................................................... 7 Geographic Map of Member Expertise and Resources ...................................................................................... 7 Content Management System ............................................................................................................................ 8 Requirements .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Tagging technology ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Calendar and Message Board ............................................................................................................................. 9 Mobile App .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 Budget ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Proposed Timeline .................................................................................................................................... 10 Responses and Format for Proposals ......................................................................................................... 10 Vendor Selection Criteria .......................................................................................................................... 11 Contact Information ................................................................................................................................. 11

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011

Project Summary
The not-for-profit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR), a network for scientists and others interested in promoting the sciences in Puerto Rico, is accepting proposals to make improvements to the organizations website (www.CienciaPR.org) and its associated MySQL databases. Improvements will involve enhancements to the members database and associated members profiles, enhancement to the websites security, the inclusion of technologies to facilitate the display of memberrelevant content, and improvements or changes to the content management system. We do not seek someone to provide system maintenance, although contracts for future updates could be considered based on performance. As a not-for-profit, CienciaPR is searching for candidates who appreciate that cost is a primary concern and who meet the criteria defined below: PHP and MySQL coding and design experience Experience developing data mash-ups (i.e. combinations of different data sources) using GoogleMaps is preferred, as is experience with scientific databases such as PubMed Experience developing attractive websites that can be managed and maintained by persons with minimal to moderate IT experience Experience designing with a variety of free, open source content management systems Experience developing membership networks or community-focused websites Experience incorporating Web2.0 functionalities

Company Information
About Ciencia Puerto Rico
Ciencia Puerto Rico is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting science and research in Puerto Rico. Created in 2006, the CienciaPR website (www.cienciapr.org) provides a platform that allows networking and resource sharing among scientists and people interested in science and Puerto Rico. CienciaPR.org was designed to foster mentoring interactions among Latinos at different stages of their scientific careers, to highlight the work of Latino scientists and to increase scientific literacy and appreciation among Latinos, particularly, but not exclusively, those of Puerto Rican descent. The value of CienciaPR lies in its extensive and diverse network of membersmore than 5,450 scientists of all ranks and disciplines who are students, professionals, educators and individuals in the Puerto Rican archipelago and abroadall uniting under a common interest of supporting the sciences in Puerto Rico. If information on this network was properly managed and mined, it would help facilitate a great number of initiatives within the organizations mission, from the development of a participatory mentoring portal, to advertisement of professional development opportunities tailored to specific audiences, to the development of maps of expertise or services. Currently, CienciaPR runs thanks to the work of a small dedicated group of volunteers. At present, it does not have a dedicated web developer and minimal enhancements have been made to the website since it was first designed in 2006. 2

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011

Current Site Structure and Content

Structure CienciaPR.org is hosted through ICDSoft.com (SAVVIS Data Center). The website uses PHP5 platform, managed through a Sureserver.com control panel and has a MySQL5 database with a phpMyAdmin frontend. The MySQL database captures information related to members, events, news, podcasts, message board, and emails sent through the website, among others. The web-visible front-end of the site employs modern web technologies, such as XML, CSS, RSS, DHTML, and javascript so that the user experience is dynamic, professional, clean, and universally-accessible. The website has an in-house designed CMS that provides controlled access to certain portions of the website and functions, based on user level. Only registered members are allowed to see contact information for other members and to post on the message board. Members can be given different security permissions to enable them to play different roles or administrative functions, such as adding news, podcasts, events, or main page boxes, or even modifying or deleting member profiles, managing permissions, etc. The coherent user management system applies across every page of the site, tailoring the experience to the specific user. Content can be viewed either in English or Spanish, based on the users preference.

Main Components of CienciaPR.org

A main page that profiles a scientist or scientific topic of interest to our members. This page also displays a series of boxes with announcements of new developments for our organization ad in some cases advertisements from sponsors. A searchable member directory and member profiles with customizable privacy settings that collect the following information: o Name o Address o Username o Email o Phone or Cell Phone o Website o Institution o Positions o Scientific Fields of Study or Interest o An About Me section o A Project Info section o A rating from 0-3 on entrepreneurship interest
Figure 1. Sample member profile A news section that collects science news stories of relevance to our audience written by our members or media partners

A podcast section where we publish educational podcasts that explain recent discoveries in a colloquial and accessible language A resource section that collects information on research tools, funding announcements, research training opportunities, and professional organizations and research collaboratives in Puerto Rico 3

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011 An events section that contains a calendar with scientific workshops, seminars, symposia, and other events of relevance to our audience A message board where members can post information about jobs,funds, research training opportunities, questions, queries, and other topics for open dissemination and discussion CienciaPR.org also uses several social media and Web2.0 communication platforms to extend the reach of its services, these include: o o RSS feeds for News and Podcasts Newsletters (in Spanish and English; currently sent through VerticalResponse but can also be sent through the website itself) AddThis sharing application Web-based contact forms for sending emails among users o o o o o o Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Youtube Livestream Scribd

o o

CienciaPR.org has several eCommerce systems including a CafePress store, a PayPal non-profit donation account, and a GoogleAdsense service CienciaPR.org uses GoogleAnalytics, Webalizer, and Quantcast for traffic analysis

Audience/Members1
Over 5,400 registered members Broad multi-sector backgrounds: 59% academic, 16% private sector, 10% K-12, 8% public, and 7% medical sector Broad distribution of training and professional stages: 4% High School, 20% Undegraduate, 4% Medical Students, 43% Graduate Student, 2% MD/PhD Students, 5% Post-doctoral, 22% Professor National and international members: 67% from Puerto Rico, 28% United States (U.S.), 4% Latin America, and 1% Other. In the U.S. 11% are from Florida, 9% from Massachusetts, 9% from California, 7% from New York, 6% from Texas, 5% from Pennsylvania, 4% from Maryland, and 49% from other States. There are members in 36 countries and 45 states All scientific fields: Although a majority of our members are in the biosciences, all science, technology, mathematics, and engineering fields are represented among our membership Entrepreneurial interests: 53% say they dont have any entrepreneurial interest, 9% say little, 15% say some; 23% are very interested

Site Statistics2
CienciaPR.org currently averages 60,000 visits and 1.1 million hits per month. Approximately 45% of traffic is from Puerto Rico, 20% from the U.S., and the rest is from Iberoamerica Approximately 56% of traffic is from individuals ages 18-49 and 26% is over the age of 50

, Most audience statistics are rough estimates based on crude analyses of the database. Currently, the database does not capture in the best manner categories such as sector, profession, academic stage, geographic location, or fields of interest 2 Traffic numbers are from analyses by Quantcast and Webalizer.

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011

Improvements Sought
We seek the following improvements to CienciaPR.org, in order of priority: 1. Additions and modifications to the members database, the member registration profile and the information displayed in the profiles section. This would also include enhancements to the registration security to prevent spam and automatic robot registrations. It would also include recommendations for how to roll-out the profile changes and ensure a smooth transition. 2. Development of a google-based map of member expertise and resources 3. Recommendations and, if budget allows, services, to increase manageability of the website by staff with minimal or medium HTML skills, either by enhancing the current website or migrating it to a userfriendly content management system. 4. Addition of tagging capability to different sections (news, podcasts, main page, etc.) to facilitate the display of member-relevant content 5. Enhancements to the message board and calendar sections to improve their management and usability. 6. Development of a mobile App for CienciaPR Because of budgetary constraints we may not be able to purchase all improvements. Respondents are requested to give estimates for each of the components outlined above and described below. Ideally, all improvements should maintain the bilingual flexibility of the website. CienciaPR staff can help with translation of new content if need be.

Members Section
There are several sites that have member registration or profile components that could be used as models for how to collect membership information. These include the websites for Community of Science, Biomedexperts, the VIVO network, the ACS website, and the Profiles Research Networking Software. In addition, the NSF Survey of Doctorate Recipients and Survey of Earned Doctorates contain coded fields and lists that could be used to define the answer options for our member profiles.

Registration Security
We have had some trouble with false registrations from spammers and would like to add additional security to the website, including a CAPTCHA test and/or an email verification process. It would also be good to add a function to detect duplicate memberships. Members might forget that they have already joined and if they use a new login name and a different email address they may create a duplicate profile. It would be good to have a function that checks based on the first and last name and alerts the person that the new profile might be a duplicate to an already existing one. Community of Science has a nice mechanism for this: http://registration.cos.com/

Member Database and Profiles

Currently, the utility of the member profile database is limited because it does not collect certain information, or because it collects other information in a non-efficient manner. A better designed database would allow us

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011 to understand our membership better and provide better reports. It would also allow us to provide better services and content. Below we outline some of the improvement needs of the membership database. Need to improve the collection of geographic location information It would be good to have a better knowledge of the countries and cities where our members work. At the moment the information is collected by means of the element Address. A more efficient way to collect this would be to use separate elements for city, state/province, country, and postal code. Some of our members might be outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico so international addresses should be taken into account. Need to improve the collection of primary institution People may currently enter different names for the same institution (e.g. UPR, University of Puerto Rico, Universidad de Puerto Rico, etc.) It would be good to have this field pre-populated with a comprehensive list of institutions, so as to standardize language. If possible, this field should have dynamic filtering and/or term auto-complete to ease selection of a standard Institution name. Please note, we have gathered several lists of U.S. research and academic institutions from the NSF and other government websites that could be used to prepopulate options. Need to add a separate field for academic degree(s) attained This should be a multiple choice option focused on degrees of primary interest (e.g., BA, BS, MS, PhD, MD, DVM, DDS, DO, Other Doctorate, MBA, JD, RN, MPH, MPA, Other Masters) Need to separate the concepts of primary work sector, job/position, title, and training stage into three distinct elements These concepts are comingled in the current database and need to be separated in order to have a better picture of our membership composition. o Training stage should be preceded by a question regarding whether the member is currently in an academic training or fellowship program. If answered affirmatively, the respondent would then be asked to classify the training stage (e.g. K-6, high school, undergraduate, MS, PhD, MD, MD/PhD, postdoc, medical resident/fellow, other) If the member is not currently in a training program, they should be asked to define their current work sector and primary job. Primary work sector should include options such as: Academic, Government, For-Profit/Industry, Hospital/Health System, Not-forprofit/Foundation, None, Other Primary job should include only those options that we are particularly interested in collecting. For example, an option could be Faculty Member, which could then lead to options such as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, etc. Other options could include: Industry Scientist, Technician, Research Staff, Doctor/Physician, Nurse, Other health professional, Engineer, K-12 teacher, Administrator, Science Policy, Science Writer, Science Editor, etc., as well as an Other category, and an option for filling in under this field. There should be an additional check box for members to declare whether they are currently performing research or not.

Need to replace the current options under Fields of Study with a better organized taxonomy. Currently a long list of potential fields of study is presented as a multiple checkbox selection. While the list of potential answers is very long, it is not comprehensive of every research topic. Answers should be grouped/filtered according to a taxonomy such as the one used by NSF in its Survey of Earned 6

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011 Doctorates (see latest survey) which classifies field of study by broad topic such as Health and Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, Chemistry, Mathematics, Other. This would ease navigation of potential answers, and would also allow grouping of members by broad field to improve membership analyses and content delivery. Publications We would like to add a section that collects and displays members publications in an automatic or semi-automatic way. Using the members name information, an automatic query could be launched using the publication database PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed. The member could then select the publications that belong to him from a list of results to appear on his/her profile. There should also be a way to freely enter publications not within PubMed. The PubMed member publication search functionality should allow updates to add new publications. More information about how utilities can work with PubMed can be found here. The Biomedexperts website provides a good example of how PubMed can be used to find and post personal publications Publication Topics PubMed publications are assigned MeSH terms (Medical Subject Headings) to provide an overview of the topics covered. If possible the profile could display the most popular publication terms within the members publications and hyperlink them as tags to allow the automatic search of other researchers with the same terms in their publications. More information about MeSH terms in PubMed can be found here. The Biomedexperts website provides a good example of how MeSH terms can be used to profile members and create tags. Research Funds The profile section should also include a section for current funding. Semi-automatic queries might be possible using the NIH Reporter or the NSF databases and members could fill in additional information. Funding information should be displayed chronologically in the following fashion: Project Period; Funding Institute/Organization; Project Name Need to add a section for members to enter their Professional Organizations Need to add a section for members to enter other Scientific Collaboration Networks Profiles (e.g. BioMed Experts, VIVO) To incentivize member profile usage and updates, it would be good to provide members the option to create an exportable personal CV or resume, based on the information collected in their member profile. The CoS website provides a good example of a similar service.

Member Search
The advanced member search function should be updated to fit new and modified fields.

Member Changes Roll-out

Because the proposed changes are extensive and would modify the information that users see in their profiles, we would need to develop a careful strategy for rolling out the changes and encouraging members to fill out new information. This might include, if possible, mapping old elements to new ones or asking members to enter their information entirely anew. We seek recommendations on the best way to make this transition.

Geographic Map of Member Expertise and Resources

We would like to be able to display information related to the geographic distribution of our members and categorize it or filter it by different parameters such as fields of study, degree, job sector, and/or MeSH terms. We would like to also be able to develop additional maps based on data not yet collected, such as core 7

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011 facilities at different institutions, tech transfer offices, etc. We seek someone with map-based mashup experience or experience using Google Maps API. Examples of the types of visualizations we would like to create include the following: http://report.nih.gov/recovery/arragrants.cfm http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107323371234931705460.0004 66808dc4447e57ed0 http://www.flinn.org/bio-directory http://www.nihmaps.org/index.php (very advanced but like their search and filter capability)

Content Management System

The website utilizes an in-house-built content management system (CMS) that is outdated and not very easy to manage. New web pages or modifications to existing web pages can only be added through use of the Sureserver Control Panel by individuals with moderate to advanced knowledge of HTML. A few sections (main page yellow boxes and the News, Podcast, Event, and mailing list entry systems) allow the entry of PHP- or HTML-formatted text. The message board section only allows the entry of plain text. We seek modifications to the content management system to enhance its usability and management. We would also consider transferring the website to a safe yet more user friendly, open-source, CMS (e.g. Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, Plone, etc.) if it is more cost effective.

Requirements
Open Source: The website environment must be open source and provide flexibility for HTML coding revisions Database: MySQL is preferred Editor: WYSIWYG or similar to allow easy content development with minimal HTML skills Accessibility: The website must meet all Federally mandated access requirements adopted by the Federal Access Board under section 508 subsection 1194.22 of the Rehabilitation Act and must be built in accordance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, provided by the W3C Hosting: We would prefer to maintain our current server unless there is a compelling usability or costrelated reason to change. If required to change, bandwidth and uptime guarantees will be required. Speed: Pages should be developed assuming a dial-up connection and with maximum loading time of less than 15 seconds over dial-up. Browser Support: At a minimum, the site must support Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 6.0 and above, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. Screen Resolution: Use a flexible design with a minimum requirement of 1024 x 768 pixels. Flash: Support a minimum of Flash version 9.0 Add-ons: The system should support PDFs, images, audio, and embeddable video, slideshows, and other widgets

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011 Feeds: There should be RSS feeds for the news, podcasts, calendar, and message board sections, and if possible of any of the sites tags (see example here: https://communities.acs.org/community/feeds?community=1) Search: There should be searching capability for the news, podcast, events, message board, and archived main pages sections

Tagging technology
The use of tags, words that define the main content of a page Web or post, allows classifying content in a defined but dynamic way. A defined tagging vocabulary, based on broad topics of interest for our audience (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, etc), would allow us to mark content in a standardized way, and thus facilitate searching by broad category or the display of content based on member preferences and/or characteristics. For example, if the user chooses it, we could display only content related to biological sciences, or to chemistry, or to education. The New York Academy of Sciences and Nature journals website have good examples of how to use this technology. We seek to add tagging capability to the following sections: News, Podcast, Calendar, Message Board, Main Page story. We also seek recommendations for how to utilize tags to filter and display only tag-specific content. If the proposed CMS already comes with tagging capabilities, enhancements in this area may not be required.

Calendar and Message Board

The current calendar and messageboard sections have limited and outdated functionality. We seek the following improvements: Improved calendar system with easier entry options (currently you can only enter multi-date events one day at a time), more attractive display (Google calendar is a good example), and that allows members to input events for review and approval by CienciaPR staff. Improved message board system that allows messages to be organized under specific categories (e.g. job, funding opportunity, training, comment, etc.), allows tags, and includes a searching function. Ideally, users would not have to perform a separate log-in to use the forum.

If the proposed CMS already comes with calendar and message board solutions, enhancements in this area may not be required.

Mobile App
We would like to design a mobile app for the website. We request recommendations and proposals for how to provide the best mobile service to our audience.

Budget
We have a limited but flexible budget. We reserve the right to reduce the scope of the project based on costs for different components. In the response to the RFP, please list out the costs or cost ranges for each of the components outlined in the Improvements section. 9

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011

Proposed Timeline
We would like to begin this project at the latest on February 1st, 2012 to be completed by August 1st, 2012 (6 months). Below we provide a suggested timeline: December 2nd , 2011: RFP Response Deadline December 2nd, 2011 February 1st, 2012: Vendor evaluation and selection February 1st March 1st, 2012: Proposal scope refinement March 1st June 15th, 2012: Site development June 15th July 15th, 2012: Site testing and CienciaPR training (if necessary) August 1st, 2012: Site launch

Responses and Format for Proposals

Proposal Deadline: December 1st, 2011 Vendors should submit their responses by email in the requested format to: Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina Ciencia Puerto Rico Operations Officer Email: Giovanna.guerrero @ cienciapr.org Phone: 616-643-7666 Proposals should contain the following information: 1. Letter of introduction 2. Proposal - Please submit a document outlining the following: a. Web development process: explain the process you will follow to meet the different requested
components and improvements b. Address usability standards and testing c. Address any important technology information and specifications used in your solution (languages, platform, etc.) d. Provide the estimated man hours required for each task e. Provide a realistic time frame for completion with milestones

3. Qualifications Please submit a document outlining the following: a. If the vendor is a firm or company: i. Provide a company profile, length of time in business and core competencies. ii. Describe the team that will be assigned to this project and each of their roles. Please include a bio and/or resume for each key staff member assigned to this project. b. If the vendor is an individual: i. Please provide your CV or resume c. Describe familiarity with MySQL databases and with different open source CMS d. Briefly describe your firms or your own project management and vendor-costumer communication processes and preferences e. Please provide 3-5 web sites (with live URLs) you have produced that best reflect your work and relevancy to this project (e.g. work for non-profits, work for membership network websites). Briefly list your role in each project and provide reference information for the project manager for each. 10

RFP: Improvements to CienciaPR.org

Publication Date: November 6, 2011 Response Deadline: December 11, 2011

4. Budget a. Break down cost by subprojects summarized on page 5. All hourly rates and fees, charges, costs and anticipated reimbursable costs must be clearly stated. b. Identify any additional development costs beyond your own required to perform the project (e.g. installing or accessing a new CMS, purchasing a widget and or content for database). Please note: We will handle ongoing maintenance of the website ourselves. We prefer not to change our current server or hosting service. c. Other charge areas: Please identify whether there will be other expenses, training, consulting fees, future work, etc. to complete this project.

Vendor Selection Criteria

Vendors will be selected based on the following criteria: Suitability of the Proposal the proposed solution meets the needs and criteria set forth in the RFP. Candidate Experience Candidate has successfully completed similar projects; has worked with MySQL databases and various CMS; has developed similar websites that build communities and have interactive features; preferably has created map-based mashups, worked with the Google Maps API; and has the qualifications necessary to undertake this project. Website designing experience is a plus. Value/Pricing Structure and Price Levels The price is commensurate with the value offered by the proposer and mindful of CienciaPRs non-profit status. CienciaPR will be able to recognize the contribution of the vendor within the web site as supporter and partner. Depth and Breadth of Staff The candidate has appropriate staff to develop the site in the time frame needed. Proposal Presentation The information is presented in a clear, logical manner and is well organized.

Terms and Conditions

CienciaPR will retain full control, access, and rights to any new or customized code. Separate parties submitting separate proposals may not discuss pricing information or they will be ineligible to bid on the project. Bidders must disclose any relevant conflicts of interest and/or pending lawsuits. Any information received from CienciaPR must be treated in a confidential fashion.

Contact Information
Please direct all responses to this RFP and/or any questions to: Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina Ciencia Puerto Rico Operations Officer Email: Giovanna.guerrero @ cienciapr.org Phone: 616-643-7666

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