Website Forum Development | Freedom House

Expressions of Interest Due: 18:00 EST Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Proposals Due: 18:00 EST Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Introduction:

Freedom House's Gozaar project has decided to upgrade its Farsi language forum tool. As a component of Freedom House's Gozaar site, the forum provides a space for Iranians and other Farsi speakers to discuss democracy, human rights, politics, and other issues affecting Iranians. In particular, Freedom House seeks to improve the usability of the forum and the quality of the Farsi language tools.

Project Objectives:

The project aims to select, customize, and implement a third‐party forum tool that will meet the following criteria:

1. Farsi language support: The tool should include a Persian language option, that will completely translate the tool in to correct and compelling Persian, including changing the direction and alignment of the page to accommodate a left‐to‐right language.
2. Customization of look and feel: The forum should include customization of templates and other look‐and‐feel components to closely match the look, feel, and color scheme of the primary Gozaar website.
3. Compelling user interface: The user interface for the forum should be user‐friendly. This would include a clear layout that emphasizes the most common user actions (such as posting comments or registering), image‐based buttons, and the ability to sort threads into broader categories.
4. English language support: The forum should allow users to write either using Farsi characters or English language characters.
5. WYSIWYG posting tool: The forum should include a true What‐You‐See‐Is‐What‐You‐Get tool for posting comments. This tool should include the ability to change the alignment of the text, and if possible, change the direction of the text, to allow users to change the default direction if they are writing using the English alphabet.
6. Adequate spam prevention: The forum should have adequate spam prevention tools, such as challenge‐response tests for unregistered users. The spam prevention tools should be tailored to Farsi users, including proper directionality and ability to complete them without using English‐language keyboards.
7. Anonymous posting: Users should be able to post anonymously. The forum tool should not require a valid e‐mail address for registration, and should allow users to post without registering.
8. Administrator tools: The forum should have administrator tools that will allow Freedom House staff to moderate posts, ban users and IP addresses, and create new topics for posts.

Proposals:

Vendor proposals should be sent electronically in OpenDocument, Microsoft Word, or PDF format by 18:00 EST Thursday, July 3rd, 2008, and must include the following sections:

1. Company mission, history, services, and people
2. Website forum and user interface design experience
3. Proposed project team and approach
4. Timeline (including milestones) and estimated cost for delivering
5. Two client references

Assessment criteria:

Each proposal will be assessed, at a minimum, according to the following criteria:

• Completeness (as per the "Proposals" section above)
• Qualifications, past experience, and suitability of proposed staff
• Demonstration of understanding in terms of what needs to be done and proposed approach for doing it
• Value for money (selection of the successful candidate may not necessarily be the lowest priced bid for work)

Vendor Selection:

Freedom House will make a final vendor selection for this work by 18:00 EST on Friday, July 11th, 2008.

Questions:

• Questions regarding this document should be sent to akbari@freedomhouse.org.