Cenpdx Rfp

Request for Proposal Project Title: The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system Prepared by: Collin Ferguson, The Communicator July 22, 2009 Proposal number: 000-0004

Community Exchange Network of Portland

920 SW 3rd Ave. Portland, OR 97214

T 503-701-8750 URL http://www.cenpdx.net

"A prosperous world with community and economy integrally linked."

The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system

Table of Contents Introduction and Background

4

Characteristics

4

Functionalities for the platform are as follows:

4

The Deliverables

5

Submission Guidelines for this RFP

5

CEN|PDX Community Currency Program Description

7

What is CEN|PDX?

7

Key Benefits

8

CEN|PDX Example: Portland Saturday Market

8

Comparing LETS to CEN|PDX business loyalty and nonprofit fundraising program

9

Core Functionalities of the CEN|PDX Community Currency platform 12 Account Types

12

Administrative Accounts

13

Operator/Broker

14

Needs to be secure

14

Open API

14

Skinnable

14

Contribution Fee

15

Credit limit setting functionality

15

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Accounts Summary and Transaction History

15

Member profile and directory

15

RSS

15

Payment Mediums

16

Extensibility

16

Potential Platforms for use by CEN|PDX

18

CC Lite

18

Curomuto

18

Cyclos

18

GETS

19

Marketplace for Drupal

19

Ripple Pay

19

Trade Banc, The

20

Administrative

21

Schedule of Events

22 22

Due Dates

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

23 24

Response Requirements Executive Summary

24

Scope, Approach, and Methodology

24

Deliverables

25

Project Management Approach

25

Detailed and Itemized Pricing

26

Appendix: References

26

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Appendix: Project Team Staffing

26

Appendix: Company Overview

26

Appendix: Response to Appendix A

26

Appendix: Response to Appendix B

26

Response Requirements

27

DELIVERABLES

27

DETAILED TECHNICAL REPORT

27

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REPORT

27

DELIVERY

27

Evaluation Factors for Award

28 28

CRITERIA

Appendix A: Request for Comment

29 29

Moving toward open

Appendix B: Request for Comment

33 33

Econix: tools for free and open (source) grassroots economies

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Introduction and Background The Community Exchange Network of Portland (CEN|PDX) is catalyzing a new way for economy and community to relate.  The Community Exchange Network is an international organization operating an online platform for 145 community currency programs in 19 countries. The Community Exchange Network of Portland (CEN|PDX) is the local chapter, and provides the Green Kurrent!, a participant issued community currency.  The CEN|PDX community currency program allows businesses to donate to nonprofit organizations at no cost, provides nonprofit organizations an efficient and effective fundraising program, and allows individuals to retain buying power for contributions to their favorite nonprofit organizations by spending the Green Kurrent! at the businesses that donated.  CEN|PDX plans to operate the program throughout the City of Portland, the Metropolitan Area, and SW Washington.

Characteristics 1.

User-friendly 

2.

Using open source code

3.

Needs to be secure

4.

Skinnable

5.

Fully extensible

Functionalities for the platform are as follows: 1. Has two administrative accounts 2. Operator/broker 3. Has three account types: 1) Businesses/Services, 2) Nonprofit/Community Project, 3) Individual (See Core Functionalities, p. 12)

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4. Integrates with Point of Sale (POS) tools-- cell phones, cash registers and card swiping pads-- allowing participants to access and transact with their community currency away from their desktop computer 5. Ability to be expanded with social networking functionalities 6. Ability to "go open" in the future (see Appendix A: RFC) 7. Compatible with the Sifter Aggregator Project in the future (see Appendix B: RFC)

The Deliverables The following are the program features CEN|PDX requests being developed in the following order of priority. 1. Online Banking and Marketplace - online account management, shopping cart, online sales, and donations 2. Smart Phone application 3. Public API (aka a widget) that can work with social networking programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Bright Neighbor, Local Space, AboutUs, and Portland is Better Together 4. Development of swipe/one pass card functionality 5. Development of RFID paper currency

Submission Guidelines for this RFP 1. A technical report 2. A two page summary that explains how you intend to meet the requirements. 3. Include explanation (both in two page summary and technical report) for any aspect of this RFP you are unable to provide 4. A timeline that keeps with the sequence of aforementioned features and deliverables 5. An overall budget 6. References and track record

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For detailed explanation of the functionalities and features requested above go to section Core Functionalities of the CEN|PDX Community Currency Platform. Additionally, this RFP and CEN|PDX services are part of CEN|PDX's proposal to the City of Portland to fund the creation of a community currency program. The Community Exchange Network of Portland is seeking to identify and select an outside independent organization to perform the listed activities above.  The remainder of this document provides additional information that will allow a Vendor to understand the scope of the effort and develop a proposal in the format desired by the Community Exchange Network of Portland. Note: If for any reason the Vendor is not able to address particular aspects of this RFP either through their firm or network of sub-contractors, the Vendor is strongly encouraged to respond only to aspects of this RFP that are best aligned with available skills and abilities. All aspects of this RFP must be addressed, therefore, the Vendor must provide explanation for any portion of this RFP that cannot be provided.

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CEN|PDX Community Currency Program Description What is CEN|PDX? The Community Exchange Network is an international organization operating 145 community currency programs in 19 countries.  The Community Exchange Network of Portland (CEN|PDX) is the local chapter, and allows participants to issue Green Kurrents! and donate them to nonprofit organizations of their choice.  By donating Green Kurrents! (GK!), a new tool for locally based fundraising and economic development is created.     After donating, the participant's account goes into commitment (into the negative), i.e. they must provide goods and services in the future.  The account of the recipient non-profit has credit (goes positive), i.e. they have Green Kurrents! that can be spent as a percentage of their purchase costs, given to staff as a bonus or incentives to volunteers, and sold to donors at par with the dollar (1:1).    Businesses now can donate to their favorite non-profit organization without cost.  Additionally, they earn a powerful business loyalty tool that improves their reputation and because a business can determine its acceptance policy, it can bring in customers during off-peak hours.  For example, a coffee shop could accept 50% Green Kurrents! and 50% $USD at 2PM to bring in more customers.  A movie theater could accept 100% of the ticket price, thereby encouraging customers to buy more popcorn, beer, soda pop or candy with $USD.   The non-profit can spend the Green Kurrent! at any of the participating business, top off staff wages, provide incentives to volunteers, or sell Green Kurrents! at par with the dollar.  This results in increased capacity for the non-profit at minimal expense.   Individuals, however, derives the greatest gain, as they are able to contribute to their favorite nonprofit and retain buying power.  Now individuals can spend Green Kurrents! amongst their

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community, thereby creating new local economies, or return to any of the participating business paying a portion of the purchase price in dollars and Green Kurrents!. 

Key Benefits The CEN|PDX community currency program is a triple win for all participants. Businesses generate business loyalty; and,  Participate in a free advertising campaign Receive direct recognition for donations   Non-profit organizations receive a dynamic fundraising tool; and,  strengthen connection to donor community   increase capacity for free   Individual contributors get a near equal exchange for donation; and, assist in keeping federal dollars local vote their values with dollars and community currency CEN|PDX Example: Portland Saturday Market As a business, Portland Saturday Market provides space and marketing to over 250 small businesses, artists, musicians, culinarians from across the Pacific Northwest.  To support their vendors, Portland Saturday Market offers gift cards at its promotions booth.  To boost their sales of gifts cards, and to support the the Chinese Flower Garden in Old Town/China Town, Portland Saturday Market joins the Community Exchange Network of Portland.  They agree to issue approximately one thousand Green Kurrents! per month and donate them to the Chinese Flower Garden.  Customers of the Portland Saturday Market contribute U.S. Dollars to the Chinese Flower Garden, and in exchange receive the equal amount in Green Kurrents!.  The Portland Saturday Market customers retain buying power, as they are able to spend the Green Kurrents! as a percentage (for example 20%) of the gift card purchase price.  Portland Saturday Market sells gift cards for $25.00 USD.  In this scenario, the customer gives Portland Saturday Market $20.00 and GK!5.00 for a $25.00 USD gift card spendable with Saturday Market vendors.  

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Comparing LETS to CEN|PDX business loyalty and nonprofit fundraising program Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) is the predecessor model to the business loyalty and nonprofit fundraising program offered by the Community Exchange Network of Portland (CEN| PDX).  Michael Linton, founded the first LETS in British Columbia in the 1983, and defines a LETSystem as: “a self-regulating economic network which allows its members to issue and manage their own currency exchange within a bounded system."  Its essential characteristics are: 1.

The agency maintains a system of accounts in a quasi-currency;

2.

Members accounts start at zero; no money is deposited or issued;

3.

The network agency acts only on the authority of the member in making a credit transfer from that member’s account into another’s;

4.

There is no obligation to trade;

5.

A member may know the balance and turnover of another member;

6.

No interest is charged or paid on balances;

7.

Administration costs are recovered in internal currency from member accounts on a costof-service basis.”

 Participants of a LETS are accountable to the whole, rather than the individual you are trading with; the balance of give and take is kept within LETS.  For example, if Mary wants Bill to work on her garden, Mary can pay him in LETS credits.  Bill can then get a massage from Fred, who gets piano lessons from Jodi, who baby-sits Mary’s kids.  A LETS provides a listing of goods and services offered or requested by its members and records the transactions among its membership using an interest free credit system where one credit is roughly equivalent to one U.S. dollar.  LETS promotes the addition of products and services that are not normally available in the traditional economy.  It allows people to get help from their neighbors when they lack cash.  It offers a market for people who are learning a skill and are not quite ready to compete in the traditional economy.  Additionally, LETS functions as communicative tool amongst neighbors, allows participants to meet their needs within their community, and as a result is capable of addressing impoverished populations by allowing people access to local goods and services on mutual credit basis.  Those who provide the goods are "paid" immediately, and there is no loss to The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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anyone should someone not be able to immediately repay or discharge their debt to the system. Additionally, participants do not need to worry about interest payments or a fixed repayment schedule.  Getting out of debit (debt) is as easy as checking the listings, seeing what opportunities are there to meet someone else's needs, contacting them, and providing the service. The table below introduces how LETS and CEN|PDX's business loyalty and nonprofit fundraising program differ: CEN|PDX

LETS The community currency is

Currency Issuance

The Green Kurrent! is issued via

issued when a service or

a donation cycle.

product is exchanged between two participants.

Yes - the initial issuance and donation determines a Credit Limits?

participants credit limit.

No - participants may go as

Donation amounts is a

deep into commitment or earn

percentage of a business' opportunity costs (excess

as much credit as desired.

capacity). Yes - the community currency is

No - LETS is strictly a peer to

Business

issued by businesses and

peer exchange. Businesses can

participation?

individuals providing direct

participate, but generally do

services.

not.

Yes - accepting the community Nonprofit participation?

currency as a donation is a critical component of the CEN| PDX program.

No - nonprofits generally do not participate in a LETS, however some LETS are operated solely by nonprofits as another means to account for services.

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Multiple Account types?

Yes - there are three main

No - all participants have equal

account types: 1) Businesses/

status and are able to present a

Services; 2) Nonprofit; 3)

wide array to skills, talents, and

Individual

interests.

Yes - CEN|PDX takes a 10% fee per donation of community Generates $USD

currency to participating

revenue?

nonprofits.  CEN|PDX then sells

No - LETS does not participate with the traditional economy in this manner.

the community currency to contributors. Yes - CEN|PDX program is a Builds into peer to peer,   B2B supply chain and innovation networks?

mutual credit clearing system and allows businesses to trade Green Kurrents! with other business participants allowing the program to expand into

No - LETS is a peer to peer community currency program, and general only provides mutual credit clearing for neighborhood and affinity groups. 

complex supply chains. 

To learn more about mutual credit clearing, please visit http://www.reinventingmoney.com/ and read "The End of Money and the Future of Civilization" by Thomas H. Greco Jr. 

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Core Functionalities of the CEN|PDX Community Currency platform Account Types Three account types (4 sub-account types).   b1--registered business (sole proprietor, LLC, LLP, C-corp, etc.) b2--unregistered business (strictly offering services such as mowing lawns, gardening, babysitting, etc.) npo1--npo registered 501c3 or umbrella project of 501c3 or domestic nonprofit or Government project, bureau, program npo2--community projects-- unregistered community project st1--individuals users st2--fronters buy Green Kurrents! directly from CEN|PDX.  st3--changers subsidize Green Kurrents! for determined NPO1, NPO2, CEN|PDX, or system in general. In order to participate in CEN|PDX, users must set up an account.  ST1 or Individual is the default account.  Individuals cannot issue the currency, and they cannot receive donations.  They can buy the currency from NPO1 or NPO2, exchange the currency for goods and services (i.e. garage sales) amongst other ST1, ST2, and ST3, and spend Kurrents! at participating businesses, i.e. B1 and B2.  

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ST2 is an individual account that buys Kurrents! directly from CEN|PDX at a minimum of GK!100 per month.  ST2 account status has limited availability, and is based upon total CEN|PDX Green Kurrent! stock.  ST3 are individuals who subsidize the cost of Green Kurrents!  ST3 states which project they wish to subsidize and at what percent.  For example, ST3 donates $USD to Real Wealth of Portland (NPO1) equal to 10% of their Green Kurrent! stock. Real Wealth of Portland has GK!100 in stock.  ST1, ST2, ST3 now buy Green Kurrents! from Real Wealth of Portland at .9:1 ratio, i.e. GK!10 now costs $9.00 USD.   Individuals (ST1, ST2, ST3) that open either a B1 or B2 account can issue the Green Kurrent!.  The difference between B1 and B2 is the credit limit size.  B1 account users will take a survey that measures their opportunity costs (excess capacity).  Survey results * percentage of conversion = total Kurrents! issued.  Percentage of conversion can fluctuate monthly based upon supply and demand of Green Kurrents! and is controlled by CEN|PDX administrators.   B2 accounts are strictly for direct services (mowing lawns, massage, house cleaning, i.e. tasks not associated with an official business), and the number of Green Kurrents! B2 can issue is limited and determined by CEN|PDX administrators. Individuals (ST1, ST2, ST3) that open NPO1 or NPO2 accounts may receive Green Kurrents! as a donation, however, NPO1 or NPO2 cannot issue Green Kurrents!.  Each NPO1 and NPO2 are expected to submit grant proposals that explain their programs purpose, objectives, timelines, etc.   CEN|PDX will provide grant proposal format.  Individuals (ST1, ST2, ST3) who open NPO1 or NPO2 are allowed under certain and limited circumstances to open B1 accounts.  For example, Portland Center Stage is a nonprofit organization, but sells tickets to theater performances.   Portland Center Stage could open both NPO1 and B1 accounts.  Any NPO can open a B2 account, however they will have the same limits as other B2 account users.

Administrative Accounts CEN|PDX requires two administrative accounts: 1) Lead Administrative managed by CEN|PDX, and 2) Sub-administrative, 3) Independent.  The CEN|PDX lead administrative account is for the community currency programs authored and managed by CEN|PDX.  Sub-Administrative accounts are customized divisions of CEN|PDX.  For example, a local church wants to open its own version of CEN|PDX.  This level of administrator will have the same control, management responsibilities, and is tied to the CEN|PDX organization.  Independent accounts operate on the CEN|PDX platform, however manage their own community currency programs and are not subject to CEN| The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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PDX oversight.  Independents will likely have their own currency (such as an "hours" or time banking) as well.

Operator/Broker CEN|PDX participants may need sub members of their accounts.  For example, a business's accountant will need access to their Green Kurrent! account.  Additionally, brokers may serve a business to business network and may need access some level of access to a client's account. Therefore, participants must be able to declare operators who have either "edit" or "view only" capabilities.

Needs to be secure CEN|PDX participants need to be aware of who has Green Kurrents!, i.e. who has credit and who is in commitment, therefore Green Kurrent! accounts must be public.  However, because $USD is also exchanged in the CEN|PDX system, $USD accounts must remain private.  Vendors must describe how they can keep Green Kurrent! accounts public and $USD accounts private.   Data can also be derived from transactions, which could include the neighborhood, zip code, city, county, state and time when a Kurrent! + $USD purchase was made, however, consumer information such as the actual store location, what was purchased, any banking accounts must remain private.  Vendors must describe how they could incorporate data collecting into the CEN| PDX system and maintain participant privacy. 

Open API CEN|PDX would like to develop an API that can interact with other social networking services (Facebook, Twitter, Bright Neighbor, etc.) and existing marketplaces (Ebay, Amazon, Craigslist, Overstock.com, CafePress, etc.).  Additionally, CEN|PDX will need an API that allows CEN|PDX programs to communicate with "Independent Administrators."

Skinnable Participants of CEN|PDX, especially Independents must be allowed to customize the look and feel of their use of the CEN|PDX platform.

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Contribution Fee CEN|PDX requires a 10% fee for every community currency donation a business gives to a local nonprofit on the CEN|PDX platform.

Credit limit setting functionality Credit limits show the maximum a business (B1 and B2) can go into commitment (the floor, i.e. negative).  NPO1 and NPO2 cannot go below 0 (zero).  NPO's that open either B1 or B2 accounts will have two account balances, one for the business and one for nonprofit operations.  The participant, however, has the right to link the two accounts via the back end, thereby creating an overall account balance.  Green Kurrent! credit limit is a measurement of a businesses opportunity costs (excess capacity) * % of conversion (to be determined by CEN|PDX) = total Kurrents! issued.  Individuals (ST1, ST2, ST3) who open B1 accounts will take a survey, which will estimate their opportunity costs.   Vendors are encouraged (not required), to create a calculator that estimate a business' opportunity costs.  Calculator must be editable.

Accounts Summary and Transaction History Participants must be able to view account information as available balance, credit limit, and because the Green Kurrent! is tied to the dollar and because GK! earned are considered revenue, participants must be able to easily calculate what is owed on local, state, and Federal taxes.   Vendors are encourage to either design or incorporate and reconfigure an existing accounting and transaction history mechanism.

Member profile and directory Participants can open ST1, NPO2, and B2 accounts with minimal restraint.  ST2, ST3, NPO1, and B1 will require additional information such as employment identification numbers (EIN).   Participants can fill out additional information such as service and product descriptions, address and contact information.  All data can be searched by an internal search engine.

RSS CEN|PDX profiles and display pages must be linkable to RSS, i.e. linked to blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.  CEN|PDX participants profiles need accessibility to Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking services. The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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Payment Mediums Online Banking/Marketplace - The CEN|PDX platform must include all necessary banking features for the CEN|PDX community currency.  CEN|PDX seeks functionalities similar to Paypal.   Also, vendors must develop banking capabilities for $USD accounts.  It is critical to CEN|PDX that launch of the program include an online marketplace where goods and services may be posted by participants and sold online.  Vendors must include in their proposal how they will develop an online marketplace.  Smartphone Application - CEN|PDX wants to progress into smartphone technology.  Vendors must include in their proposal strategies for developing a smartphone application that allows participants to transact Green Kurrents!, manage accounts, post announcements (for example, a business changes its acceptance policy), and news feeds describing what new projects and programs were funded with the CEN|PDX program. Eventually, CEN|PDX would like the smartphone application to integrate with $USD banking accounts. Vendors are encouraged to explain how this may happen.      Swipe Card/One-pass Card - CEN|PDX would like to integrate its system with existing Point of Sale (POS) systems currently available in local businesses.  Vendors must include in their proposal strategies for integrating the CEN|PDX program with POS systems, such as swipe card, one-pass card, gift card, etc. typically available at local businesses.   RFID Paper Currency - CEN|PDX is considering issuing a paper currency.  Managing and ensuring accounts remain up to date is critical to CEN|PDX.  Vendors must include a strategy on how to implement an RFID paper currency that can be tracked by the CEN|PDX platform.  Please include considerations for participant privacy.  An example technology that could be imbedded into paper currency is the Hitachi Mu Chip.  To learn more, please visit http://www.hitachi-eu.com/mu/ Home.htm.

Extensibility Critical to the future development of CEN|PDX is the extensibility of its platform. Future growth, modification and evolution must require minimal difficulty and without major changes to the infrastructure. Additionally, Vendors must consider modifiability at runtime. CEN|PDX cares deeply about having a roadmap for the portion of the road not yet built. As noted earlier, if there is any

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portion of this RFP that the Vendor is not currently able to address, discussing it in terms of extensibly is strongly encouraged.

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Potential Platforms for use by CEN|PDX Vendors must review the following community currency/commercial barter programs and describe their advantages and disadvantages.  Also, Vendors are asked to search for platforms not listed and describe their advantages and disadvantages.  Additionally, Vendors must select one platform (or, a combination if able) for their proposal, include a description of how they would modify/ reconfigure the platform, and provide a strategy for its implementation by CEN|PDX.  

CC Lite URL: http://www.hughbarnard.org/?q=node/3  or http://sourceforge.net/projects/cclite/  Community currency accounting for local exchange trading systems (LETS) and other alternative money systems. Multi-registry (group), multi-currency, with inter-registry transactions using web services (SOAP), templated to give multi-lingual capabilities.

Curomuto URL: http://www.curomuto.com  Curomuto barter exchange management software is one of the most feature rich and option providing tools available for Barter Clubs. Unlike other barter software systems, Curomuto allows the exchange operator complete control over trade credit issuance, website styles, and custom content areas. It also allows your members the choice to trade using direct barter, trade credits, cash, or a mix of all these. The barter offer managment system allows for negotiation and tracking of deals. The trade credit history page tracks account balances.

Cyclos URL = http://project.cyclos.org/ 

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Cyclos is open source software intended for use in complementary currency systems like LETS, Barter, Time bank, C3 (consumer commerce circuit) and micro finance systems like VLC (combination of micro finance with local currency). Cyclos has been developed by the dutch NGO STROhalm and is published under the GPL (open source) license meaning that it can be downloaded for free and used at no costs. But, even more important, anybody is free to download the source code and add new functions, make improvements or modifications.  Cyclos is developed in Java. and does run on a variety of platforms like Linux, Windows, Macintosh and Solaris.

GETS URL: http://www.getsglobal.com/  GETS provides the worlds most modern, user friendly and technologically advanced trading platform to Trade Exchanges and Complementary Currency organisations throughout the globe.  The GETS trading platform is used by some of the largest Trade Exchanges in the world, providing complete trading management, customer relationship management, executive reporting and accounting features at a level of detail and flexibility previously unseen within the industry.

Marketplace for Drupal URL: http://drupal.org/project/marketplace  Provides LETS accounting in a social networking context. Drupal's modular architecture rapid assembly of a website addressing the needs of your community as a whole, while the marketplace module allows members to manage their own transactions and offers and wants. This software is properly engineered, flexible, open source, and designed with users in mind. A non-profit organisation, Community Forge, exists to help communities with all aspects of currency design and web site implementation.

Ripple Pay URL: http://ripplepay.com/ Ripple is a monetary system that makes simple obligations between friends as useful for making payments as regular money. Ripplepay.com is a part of the Ripple Project to develop a peer-topeer network protocol for making decentralized Ripple payments between users on different computers. The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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Trade Banc, The URL: http://www.barter-software.net/  The Trade Banc provides the most feature rich barter software to the barter and trade industry.  A complete help menu on your barter website for your barter members and also a complete help menu for the management software as well.  Current barter software users are from all over the United States, Canada, and trade members in Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East.

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Administrative Any questions concerning overall program direction must be directed to: Collin S. Ferguson, The Communicator 503-254-8744 [email protected] Any questions concerning technical specifications or Statement of Work (SOW) requirements must be directed to: Jose Mera, Techie #1 510-541-5714 [email protected] Any questions regarding contractual terms and conditions or proposal format must be directed to: Cynthia Casas, The Maven 503-241-0801 [email protected]

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Schedule of Events Due Dates A written confirmation of the Vendor's intent to respond to this RFP is required by 9/8/2009.  All proposals are due by 5:00 PM on September 18th, 2009.  Any proposal received at the CEN|PDX office, 920 SW 3rd Ave., Portland, OR 97204 after the required time and date specified for receipt shall be considered late and non-responsive.  Any late proposals will not be evaluated for award.  Events RFP Distribution to Vendors Written Confirmation of Vendors with Bid Intention Questions from Vendors about scope or approach due Responses to Vendors about scope or approach due

Date July 31st, 2009 September 8th, 2009 at 5 PM September 10th, 2009 at 5 PM September 14th, 2009 by 10 AM

Proposal Due Date

September 18th, 2009 at 5 PM

Target Date for Review

September 21st, 2009

Final Vendor Selection Discussion(s) -- Week of Anticipated decision and selection of vendors Anticipated commencement date of work

September 21st - September 25th September 24th, 2009 September 29th, 2009

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Guidelines for Proposal Preparation Award of the contract from this RFP will be based upon the most responsive Vendor whose offer will be the most advantageous to the Community Exchange Network of Portland in terms of cost, functionality, modifiability, and other factors as specified elsewhere in this RFP. The Community Exchange Network of Portland reserves the right to: 1.

Reject any or all offers and discontinue this RFP process without obligation or liability to any potential Vendor

2.

Accept other than the lowest priced offer, 

3.

Award a contract on the basis of initial offers received, without discussion or requests for best and final offers, and

4.

Award more than one contract

Vendor's proposal shall be submitted in several parts as set forth below.  The Vendor will confine its submission to those matters sufficient to define its proposal and to provide an adequate basis for the Community Exchange Network of Portland's evaluation of the Vendor's proposal.  In order to address the needs of this procurement, the Community Exchange Network of Portland encourages Vendors to work cooperatively in presenting integrated solutions.  Vendor team arrangements may be desirable to enable the companies involved to complement each other's unique capabilities, while offering the best combination of performance, cost, and delivery for the being provided under this RFP.  The Community Exchange Network of Portland will recognize the integrity and validity of Vendor team arrangements provided that:  The arrangements are identified and relationships fully disclosed, and The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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A prime Vendor is designated that will be fully responsible for all contract performance Vendor's proposal in the response to this RFP will be incorporated into the final agreement between the Community Exchange Network of Portland and the selected Vendor(s).  The submitted proposals are suggested to include each of the following sections: 1.

Executive Summary

2.

Approach and Methodology

3.

Project Deliverables

4.

Project Management Approach

5.

Detailed and Itemized Pricing

6.

Appendix: References

7.

Appendix: Project Team Staffing

8.

Appendix: Company Overview

9.

Appendix: Response to Appendix A: RFC

10.

Appendix: Response to Appendix B: RFC

The detailed requirements for each of the above-mentioned sections are outlined below. 

Response Requirements Executive Summary The Executive Summary will present a high-level, simply spoken synopsis of the Vendor's responses to the RFP.  The Executive Summary should be a brief overview of the engagement, and should identify the main features and benefits of the proposed work.  Scope, Approach, and Methodology CEN|PDX would like to launch the program in three phases: 1) launch online payment system and marketplace; 2) Introduce smartphone and Swipe/One-pass Card system POS; 3) introduce RFID paper currency.  Vendors must include detailed testing procedures and technical expertise by

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phase (ideally, show examples/cases of previous work).   All information that is provided will be held in strict confidence.  The proposal must include and reflect expertise with the following: Working with interaction designers Scope assessment Team reviews during project  Long-term maintenance strategy  Quality assurance testing  Infrastructure security assessment Guidance on terms of use and privacy policies Deliverables Include descriptions of the types of reports used to summarize and provide detailed information on security, risk, vulnerabilities, and the necessary countermeasures and recommended corrective actions.  Include sample reports as attachments to the proposal to provide an example of the types of reports that will be provided for this engagement.  As final deliverables, CEN|PDX will expect the following 1.

Phase 1: Operational online banking and online marketplace website

2.

Phase 2: Smartphone and swipe card/one-pass card/smart card functionality.

3.

Phase 3: RFID paper currency

4.

Administrator education

5.

Maintenance strategy

Project Management Approach The Community Exchange Network of Portland (CEN|PDX) is a local chapter of the Community Exchange Network operating 145 community currency programs in 19 countries.  It is the desire of CEN|PDX to develop a platform that may be shared with the international CEN community.  The platform must be modifiable for non-English speaking participants.  The Vendors must be available The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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to the CEN|PDX team for regular check-ins and training as needed.  Vendors must include the method and approach used to manage the overall project and client correspondence.  Briefly describe how the engagement proceeds from beginning to end. Detailed and Itemized Pricing Include a fee breakdown by project phase and estimates of travel expenses.  Appendix: References Provide three current references for which you have performed similar work. Appendix: Project Team Staffing Include biographies and relevant experience of key staff and management personnel.  Describe the qualifications and relevant experience of the types of staff that would be assigned to this project by providing biographies for those staff members.   Describe bonding process and coverage levels of employees.   Appendix: Company Overview Provide the following for your company: Official registered name (Corporate, D.B.A., Partnership, etc.), Primary and secondary SIC numbers, address, main telephone number, toll-free numbers, and facsimile numbers. Key contact name, title, address (if different from above address), direct telephone and fax numbers.  Person authorized to contractually bind the organization for any proposal against this RFP. Brief history, including year established and number of years your company has been offering either online banking or marketplace services. Appendix: Response to Appendix A Include answers to questions, a list of needed technological innovations, and if able, please include a timeline and cost requirements.  Appendix: Response to Appendix B Include bulleted list as requested. 

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Response Requirements DELIVERABLES At the conclusion of the assessment, the Community Exchange Network of Portland requires written documentation of the approach, findings, and recommendations associated with this project. A formal presentation of the findings and recommendations to senior management may also be required. The documentation should consist of the following:

DETAILED TECHNICAL REPORT A document developed for the use of the Community Exchange Network of Portland’s technical staff which discusses: the methodology employed, positive security aspects identified, detailed technical vulnerability findings, an assignment of a risk rating for each vulnerability, supporting detailed exhibits for vulnerabilities when appropriate, and detailed technical remediation steps.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REPORT A document developed to summarize the scope, approach, findings and recommendations, in a manner suitable for senior management.

DELIVERY Vendors are encouraged to send their RFP by email to either Collin S. Ferguson at [email protected] or Cynthia Casas at [email protected]. If Vendors would like to send a hard copy, please send it to Community Exchange Network of Portland, 920 SW 3rd. Ave., Portland, OR 97204.

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Evaluation Factors for Award CRITERIA Any award to be made pursuant to this RFP will be based upon the proposal with appropriate consideration given to operational, technical, cost, and management requirements. Evaluation of offers will be based upon the Vendor’s responsiveness to the RFP and the total price quoted for all items covered by the RFP. The following elements will be the primary considerations in evaluating all submitted proposals and in the selection of a Vendor or Vendors: 1. Completion of all required responses in the correct format. 2. The extent to which Vendor’s proposed solution fulfills CEN|PDX's stated requirements as set out in this RFP. 3. An assessment of the Vendor’s ability to deliver the indicated service in accordance with the specifications set out in this RFP. 4. The Vendor’s stability, experiences, and record of past performance in delivering such services. 5. Availability of sufficient high quality Vendor personnel with the required skills and experience for the specific approach proposed. 6. Overall cost of Vendor’s proposal. CEN|PDX may, at their discretion and without explanation to the prospective Vendors, at any time choose to discontinue this RFP without obligation to such prospective Vendors.

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Appendix A: Request for Comment Moving toward open The Community Exchange Network of Portland's community currency program is inspired by the works of Michael Linton, his Community Way program and Open Money theory.  To learn more about Michael Linton's work, please visit http://www.lets.net and http://www.openmoney.org.  The Open Money theory abides by the following principles: Access and use of a community currency platform is available to all, i.e. all citizens residing within the defined network area may access the platform and open accounts; Participants are not subordinate to authoring, managing institutions or administrators; Participants are the issuers of the currency, and the ability of participants to create their own community currency program is available, including the ability to create multiple community currency programs; additionally, participants are able to create their own currency program specifications; Participants are able to join multiple networks and participate in as many community currency networks as they desire; and, All community currency technologies developed seek to support and maintain the previous four principles.  By this definition, several of the community currency platforms mentioned earlier in this RFP do not comply with the Open Money principles.  The Meta-currency platform is attempting to adopt and actualize these principles, however the Meta-currency programmers are not expecting completion

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in the short term (to learn more, please visit http://www.metacurrency.org).  The programmers of the meta-currency platform describe "open" as: An even playing field for all participants. The average person has access to the source code (rules, policies, processes) behind the scenes. Is transparent; information about the system is available and participant input is accepted.  The program's source code available. Anybody can verify what's really happening behind the scenes or make modifications to it.  The power to make currencies with visible rules, decentralized control and tamper-proof data is available to anyone who wants them.   The Community Exchange Network of Portland is not the only community currency program in Portland, Oregon.  Included are motiveSpace's seedChange currency, Portland TimeBank Timedollars, Cascadia Hour Exchange Hours, and a host of reputations systems.  Ideally, CEN|PDX does not want several platforms competing, and it would be much more efficient if users could access accounts from multiple currency programs and/or create their own currency program.   Elements of the platform would include: 1. Allows equal ability to any individual or group to create a new currency using without being required to participate in any of the existing currencies.  2. Beyond the initial financing, it must be self-sustaining in terms of administration and maintenance. 3. Is compatible with a POS medium that would be similarly open (smart cards, SMS, smart phone app, etc).   4. Integrate-able with Open ID authenticating mechanism and other platforms already in existence that serves the Portland community: Bright Neighbor, Local Space, About Us, ReDirect Pages, etc. 5. In order to build the richest possible ecosystem, wealth building processes should be enabled for cross-referencing. For instance, a reputation system measuring a business's The Community Exchange Network of Portland online account management system



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performance in sustainability might effect the credit limit of that business in a commercial barter system. 6. Is open source and not owned by any particular organization. 7. Has an open API so developers can build add-ons. 8. Has a user interface (UI) that is simple, intuitive, and configurable to the needs of a given currency. 9. Is eventually compatible with protocols used by Meta-currency platform, allowing the local platform data to be fully distributed. Additionally, as the CEN|PDX platform moves towards openness, it must have a marketplace virtual marketplace, which displays an "offers and needs" database with the following features: 1. Accounts for users offers or assets as well as what they need or request from the virtual community.  What do we need?  What do we have to give?   2. An option of tagging offers / requests / reviews with micro-formats so that the data can be portable to other third party developers.   3. Capable of importing data from other assets and needs databases that are using the same micro-format, such as Bright Neighbor's Swap and Share. CEN|PDX is dedicated to the creation of an open platform, however, we also understand that the technology needed may not be available.  Nevertheless, CEN|PDX would like to develop an iterative evolutionary cycle towards not just open source programing, but also an open, peer to peer, decentralized network that abides by the principles of Open Money.   Vendors must include answers to the questions of this RFC in their response to this RFP: 1. What are the current tools or processes that could allow CEN|PDX to move towards openness and abiding by Open Money principles? 2. What are the technological constraints? 3. What would CEN|PDX need to plan for if it were to adopt over time this level of openness?

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4. How much would development of an open platform/currency network, according to what was describe roughly cost?  5. What suggestions do you have for CEN|PDX's desire to initiate an iterative evolutionary cycle towards an open currency platform?

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Appendix B: Request for Comment The Community Exchange Network of Portland would like its program to interface to the Shifter Aggregator Project.  Below is the project description written by John Brush of Tryon Life Farm, Cameron Adamez of SEEcamp, and Dietrich Ayala of Firefox.  Vendors who wish to respond to this RFP are asked to review the Econix and Sifter Aggregator summary and provide bulleted list of what the CEN|PDX platform must perform to integrate.  Please include time and costs requirements.  Econix: tools for free and open (source) grassroots economies Economy in crisis Old-school economies are collapsing, rooted in a breakdown of trust and information flow (ie. credit). At the same time our societies need to radically restructure themselves to address peak oil and climate change, but existing dominant economic actors — corporate or state — seem  rudderless. The alternative is for a different kind of economy to emerge, in which grassroots movements and local (virtual) communities have the ability to dynamically plan and organize economic actions based on their own values. This is already happening, and we can support such emergence  using tools adapted from and developed through the open source community. Economy as information technology An economy is a way of coordinating needs and resources. Central planning does this by funneling information through hierarchical structures. Markets do this by translating wildly diverse kinds of  relevant information into one universal metric: price. (This is oversimplified, and actually existing economies combine these and other methods at all levels.) 

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The “real” economy has developed vast and top-heavy infrastructures of regulation, ratings, riskmanagement, financing, and the like in order to manage the information flow of its systems. That is, at least in principle, to get real needs met efficiently with available resources.  And it’s not working.  But information technology, and open source development in particular, has developed a wide range of functional approaches to such problems that can be ported over to the “real” economy. Econix is a tag for applying the lessons and tools of the hacker culture (i.e. Unix) to the  broader economy. Economy as semantic web The web is already a vast economy — some of it monetized, much of it not. People make offers and requests for goods and services; people publicly or privately rate the reliability, coolness, ecofriendliness, etc. of economic partners; people schedule meetings, coordinate  projects, get things done. But it’s (becoming) exhausting as hell to (most of) those who use it that way, and overwhelming to those who don’t. There’s too much information to sift through, too many platforms to engage, too much to keep track of.  As this information becomes formatted so that technology can read it — and microformats are already starting to help this happen — then we can develop tools that sort and prioritize this sea of information for us. Economy as distributed user-driven values engine Then, each user can define how they want their economy to function. Who do they trust? What do they value? What do they need? What do they have to offer? How do they want to make choices about what to work on when? Tools can use preferences tuned as finely as desired to cascade trust networks and tagged ratings in complex ways, presenting the user with a fully customized, simple, prioritized list of likely-useful economic opportunities.

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Introducing Sifter: an Econix aggregator We’ll introduce our initial proof-of-concept economic aggregator project, as an example. This is intended to work with existing data pools (using microformats and/or scraping), as well as newmodel data exchange mechanisms like The Mine! project.  We’ll also discuss our three-pronged approach, combining deep engagement with grassroots organizing in Portland as initial user-base with evangelizing in the tech / data platform community, and open source development of a working tool.  And we’ll facilitate conversation on: other existing projects that connect with the idea of Econix other ways the economy can be galvanized using open source techniques implementation challenges and workarounds To learn more about the Sifter Aggregator Project, please visit http://wiki.github.com/brush/econix/ sifter-an-open-economy-aggregator-for-econix.  

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