A vendor must be on GSA’s Schedule 70 in order to get on the storefront. The process for getting on Schedule 70 is detailed at www.gsa.gov/gettingonschedule. Once a vendor is awarded a Schedule 70 contract they must respond to the Request for Quote on eBuy, RFQ396098.  GSA will then request the vendor resubmit their electronic catalog file in order to distinguish their SaaS products. GSA has added new Cloud Computing Category Codes for SaaS products. Vendors must update their offered services “Contractor (Vendor) Part Number” field with these new Cloud Computing Category Codes. Once a vendor has resubmitted their electronic catalog file with the updates, and the Contracting Officer approves the file, their services will appear on Apps.gov.

Detailed instructions (and the list of the new Cloud Computing Category Codes) can be found at: http://vsc.gsa.gov/fss/saasinstructions.pdf

An RFQ was issued through the GSA eBuy system on July 30, 2009 that went out to all GSA Schedule 70 holders.  This RFQ closed on September 16, 2009. Multiple Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) have or will be awarded to responsive vendors for IaaS services. At the present time, only vendors awarded under the BPA will be on Apps.gov.

Eventually, more IaaS vendors will be added to Apps.gov. In order to get your IaaS services on Apps.gov in the future, you will need to be a schedule 70 contract holder. See www.gsa.gov/gettingonschedule for more info. All notices of future IaaS procurements will be sent out to Schedule 70 holders and will be posted on Federal Business Opportunities as well (www.fbo.gov).

In the future, PaaS vendors will be added to Apps.gov. In order to get your PaaS services on Apps.gov once GSA begins the process for selecting vendors, you will need to be a schedule 70 contract holder. See www.gsa.gov/gettingonschedule for more info. All notices of future PaaS procurements will be sent out to Schedule 70 holders and will be posted on Federal Business Opportunities as well (www.fbo.gov).

Apps.gov does not support Open Source / Shareware / Freeware services at this time. All services offered on Apps.gov (barring free Social Media tools) have to be on GSA Schedule 70 which requires contractual relationships, thus Open Source / Shareware / Freeware products not available on apps.gov.

GSA welcomes expressions of interest from Providers who want to offer, for the federal government's consideration, social media products that are free of charge. If you are such a Provider, please send an email to socialmediaapps@gsa.gov and include the following information.

1. Explain what free social media product you have that you are offering for the federal government's consideration. Include name of product, product description, logo, and which sub-category of social media apps your product fits in on Apps.gov
   
2. Provide specific examples of how the government could use your free product to meet their mission objectives (including information on any federal agencies already using your product); and
   
   1. Make sure your terms of service comply with federal law. To determine whether your Terms of Service are compatible with federal law (are "federal friendly") please refer to the model template at http://go.usa.gov/liM . It lists the points, issues, and concerns that typically arise in standard terms of service and are problematic for federal agencies. This model agreement suggests replacements that would be acceptable to most federal agencies.
   2. If your general Terms of Service are already federal-friendly, include a link to those general terms.
      
   3. If your Terms of Service need to be amended to make them federal-friendly, please tell us how you will accomplish this. Options include:
      
      1. The quickest and easiest way to get to a point where federal agencies can legally use your product is for you to incorporate these federally-appropriate clauses into your standard/general Terms of Service. You can do this by express revisions within the document (by way of example, you could indicate in the existing clause on law and jurisdiction, that if the user is a federal agency, federal law and federal courts will be used). Or you can do this via a link ("Use by federal agencies will follow the terms found here [link]") Either of these choices will allow many agencies to sign up via the automated, labor-saving "click-through" process.
         
      2. If you prefer to draft a "side-letter" amendment for consideration by federal agencies, please include in your email (or attach) a first draft of an Amended Terms of Service Agreement for use by Federal Agencies. This is the document that will be reviewed by each agency who would like to consider using your product. You can replace this document with updated versions as you negotiate with agencies.
         
3. List contact information so that interested agencies can contact provider.
   
4. Provide any specific instructions you need to give federal agencies that would use your product under a signed agreement.
   

GSA will then post to apps.gov, in a timely fashion, your product name and related information. Once you are on apps.gov, you will be seen by potential agency users as a Provider who offers free products and who is willing to agree to federal-friendly terms of service. Agencies will review the products to see if they meet their business needs, and also review the terms that the provider offers as being federal-friendly (either your general terms or a proposed amendment for federal agencies, as described above) to see if they meet agency programmatic and legal requirements.

If your interaction with federal agencies results in changes to your initially-submitted federal-friendly Terms of Service, you must send the updated terms to GSA at socialmediaapps@gsa.gov.  GSA will post your latest offered terms on apps.gov for subsequent agencies to review.

A coalition of federal agencies, led by GSA's Office of Citizen Services, began working with a broad range of providers of no-cost social media products to develop amended Terms of Service (TOS) agreements that reflect the needs of federal users.

GSA led this effort because the existing standard Terms of Service on most social media sites do not comply with federal law and in many ways are not compatible with agency expectations and practices. Working with providers to amend their standard TOS for federal users eliminates those problems.
Providers who want to offer, for the federal government's consideration, free social media products under federal-friendly Terms of Service can do so through Apps.gov.

If an agency chooses to use various social media sites and tools to accomplish its mission, the agency won't have to start from scratch in negotiating with the providers if federal-friendly Terms of Service are offered on Apps.gov. However, each agency must first consider its own policies for the use of social media, its specific needs, expectations and practices, along with a legal review, before signing the agreement.

While these TOS amendments resolve the major legal issues of the sign-up process, clarify expectations, and set the stage for productive use of these services, agencies must still comply with laws and regulations on security, privacy, accessibility, records retention, ethical use, and other specific agency policies and requirements when they use the tools. This is why we recommend you seek the advice of your agency counsel on whether the TOS is legally appropriate for use by your agency.

Because these products and services are free and don't involve agency appropriated funds, the agreements are not considered to be government contracts nor are they procurements under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). In contrast, fee-based products fall under all federal procurement rules and regulations, and are not part of the line-up of social media products on apps.gov.

A list of providers offering federal-friendly Terms of Service for free social media products is available on the GSA Cloud Storefront at Apps.gov.

Prior to 2009, the government generally could not use social media tools for mission-related purposes, such as public outreach, citizen engagement, personnel recruitment, training, and idea generation. This was because Web 2.0 providers as a general matter required potential users, before opening an account, to agree to the company's standard Terms of Service (TOS), which contained provisions federal agencies by law could not agree to. To lift this roadblock, GSA and other agencies began negotiating with Web 2.0 providers for free service under amended terms and conditions that respect the unique status and needs of the federal government.

GSA has developed a model template at http://go.usa.gov/liM listing the points, issues, and concerns that typically arise in standard terms of service and are problematic for federal agencies. This model agreement suggests replacements that would be acceptable to most federal agencies.

If you have questions that your POC can't answer or if you have general questions please email socialmediaapps@gsa.gov.