[Computerbank] OSI Request For Proposals: ICT Toolsets for civil society

[Peter Eckersley]

Hi all,

I just noticed this Open Society Institute initiative, and thought that
computerbank might be in a good position to do something with this...

----- Forwarded message from "Tseng, Emy" <e.tseng at fordfound.org> -----

>Subject: Information Program ICT Toolsets: Request For Proposals
>
>Please pass this announcement to any interested in applying for 
>resources
>to develop software applications for the NGO environment meeting the 
>following qualifications:
>
>Request for Proposals
>
>Information Program ICT Toolsets
>
>July 15, 2003: RFP announced
>
>September 30, 2003: Application deadline
>
>December 1, 2003: Results announced
>
>The Open Society Institute?s Information Program is pleased to issue a
>request for project proposals for its ICT Toolsets initiative. This
>initiative seeks to advance and support open society principles and 
>practices by funding the development of software tools designed to meet the
>mission objectives of civil society organizations and actors.
>
>Sectors of interest:
>
>* human rights
>* legal services for disadvantaged groups
>* NGO support
>* independent news media
>* anti-corruption
>* public health (disease and issue-specific)
>Application categories:
>* situation/case monitoring (domestic violence, human rights, etc)
>* case management
>* knowledge management
>* advocacy/campaign management
>* data mining, analysis, visualization
>* collaboration
>* metadata management (ontologies, semantic web)
>* secure communications or web surveillance/censorship monitoring tools
>Excluded sectors and categories:
>* administrative tools (e.g. accounting, grant management)
>* eGovernment software
>* education and training software
>
>Criteria for funded toolsets:
>
>* Proposed toolsets must directly contribute to the social missions of 
>civil society organizations and initiatives. Tools developed for 
>commercial applications that can be adapted to promote the mission 
>objectives of civil society organizations will be considered.
>* A project team may apply for support at any stage of toolset 
>creation; teams in the process of development are encouraged to apply 
>for funds to complete and promote their toolsets.
>* Given the wide variety of content management systems currently 
>available, proposals for these systems will not be considered unless 
>they respond to a significant, unmet need.
>* Project proposals should fall between $50,000 and $200,000.
>* The project proposal should include a support and sustainability 
>strategy beyond the grant period.
>* Both end-user and developer documentation for the software is 
>required by the end of the grant cycle. Please make sure to include the 
>time and cost for this in the proposal where appropriate.
>* Each proposal must identify a group of end-users who will test the 
>software before final release. Proposals should clearly detail the 
>expected user population, focusing on the scenarios and circumstances 
>under which the toolset would be best used.
>* Each proposal must include a detailed budget and timeline. Please be 
>certain to specify appropriate resources for the software?s completion, 
>full testing, and documentation.
>* Open source projects with an active development community and 
>approved Open Source Initiative licensing are preferred.
>* Software must be based on Unicode encoding to support localization in 
>non-Latin character sets.
>* Application development team with prior software development and 
>implementation experience preferred.
>* Projects that encourage standards compliance and interoperability are 
>preferred. Please be sure to note this in section four of the proposal 
>if applicable.
>* Projects that have additional funding are preferred.
>* Toolsets may be desktop, client-server, or peer-to-peer applications.
>
>Proposal format:
>
>The proposal should be no more than ten pages [2500 words] and include 
>the
>following information:
>
>1. Sector of interest and application category
>2. Abstract/overview (1-2 paragraphs only)
>3. Detailed description of project
>4. Description of technology involved
>5. Description of user group, including expected location(s) and use 
>scenarios 6. Description of civil society application for project
>7. Description of team, including countries of origin and previous
>software development experience
>8. Budget/timeline
>9. Co-funders (if any)
>
>Evaluation:
>
>Proposal reviewers will have experience in both software development 
>and
>deployment and the civil society environment. Grant applicants will be 
>notified of decisions no later than December 1st, 2003. Please send all 
>project proposals to toolsets at osieurope.org by September 30th, 2003.
>
>---
>

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Peter Eckersley
Department of Computer Science   &                  mailto:pde at cs.mu.oz.au 
IP Research Institute of Australia             http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pde
The University of Melbourne