The deadline for registration for Participants was CLOSED on 12 August 2003. No new Participants will be accepted.

Potential participants must fill out the Application to Participate in FpVTE 2003, print and sign the form, and send to the location designated on the form.

The signed Application must be received by NIST by Tuesday, August 12, 2003.

The Application to Participate in FpVTE 2003 fully describes the process for participating in FpVTE 2003. A brief overview of the process is as follows:

• Upon receipt of the original signed Application to Participate in FpVTE 2003 form by the Government, the organization will be classified as a "Tentative Participant".
• Tentative Participants will be granted access to the Participant Area of this website.
• Tentative Participants must respond to the System Throughput Questionnaire, answering questions about system purpose, capacity and speed. A Participant's responses to the Throughput Questionnaire will be used by FpVTE personnel to appropriately size the subtests, and to determine in which FpVTE Subtest the Participant's system may participate. The System Throughput Questionnaire will be available on the Participant Area of the FpVTE website.
• Tentative Participants must produce properly formatted similarity files. FpVTE 2003 Sample Datasets will be made available to Tentative Participants, who will be required to perform trials using this sample set, at their own facilities, and provide similarity files to the Government.
• If demand for participation exceeds the Government's ability to properly evaluate the technology, the Government may select Participants from the Tentative Participant list. Details of this process are included in the Application to Participate in FpVTE 2003.
• FpVTE personnel may allow an organization to enter more than one system in the evaluation if the organization provides a compelling reason, and if space is available.
• Evaluation dates will be provided at a later date. The Government will attempt to accommodate each Participant's needs on the determination of evaluation dates.
• The FpVTE 2003 evaluations will take place at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
• The FpVTE evaluation period will start no earlier than September and finish no later than December 2003.
• Anonymous participation will not be permitted.
• Participants can withdraw from the FpVTE 2003 evaluations at any time up to two weeks prior to the start of their testing, without their participation and withdrawal being documented in the FpVTE 2003 Evaluation Report. Withdrawals less than two weeks prior to the start of their testing will be documented in the FpVTE 2003 Evaluation Report.