Awards Program FAQ
From Genunix
Note: This FAQ is a DRAFT. The information on this page is not final. These questions and answers can be modified until January 28, 2008.
Got your answer? Return to OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards main page.
Still have a question? Email your question to awards-program@opensolaris.org
Contents |
What are the OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards?
The OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards are intended to recognize and reward new, enabling, innovative, and high-performance uses of OpenSolaris technology, or substantial contributions to the OpenSolaris community. This program is part of a broader Community Innovation Awards Program whose goals are to "foster innovation and recognize the most interesting initiatives within open source communities worldwide." Sun is the primary sponsor of this program and intends to contribute over $1 million across six open source communities.
We hope these awards will encourage more people to participate in the OpenSolaris community. Join a community, a project, a forum or other discussion. Use OpenSolaris. Study OpenSolaris.
To that end:
- A large chunk of the award money is designated for grants for undergraduate research on OpenSolaris.
- The contest portion of the award money is open to a broad range of entries. You can enter code that will eventually be putback into OpenSolaris (such as a device driver), or you can write a program that runs on top of the OS (such as a tool or game), or your entry can be something that is not code at all. You could enter materials for an operating systems course based on OpenSolaris (lecture notes, student guide, labs). Awards Program Contest Ideas lists some ideas for entries. These are just suggestions to get you started thinking about what you want to do.
What are the Prizes?
Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges (See Judging Criteria and Scoring) In the contest portion of the OpenSolaris awards program, 29 prizes are available:
- 1 Grand Prize: $30,000
- 3 First Prizes: $15,000 each
- 25 Second Prizes: $1,000 each
All prizes are in U.S. dollars.
Distribution of Prizes to Winners
Prizes will be awarded in August of 2008. Prize winners will need to sign an affidavit conferring certain rights to Sun Microsystems for the purposes of advertising, etc. Details of the affidavit will be added soon.
Contest Registration
How do I register for this contest?
On or about March 1, 2008, an online registration form will be available for registration here on opensolaris.org. The form will ask for some information about you or your team.
Information
Information you will be asked to provide includes your name, your email address, and the type of entry you will be submitting (a kernel module, an application, university curriculum, other documentation, etc.) You can optionally provide a brief description of your planned entry and some information about yourself. All information that you provide will be posted on a contest web page.
Informing others of what you are doing gives other entrants a chance to change their plans if they were considering doing the same thing. Similarly, you might like to know if someone else is planning to create an entry like yours.
- Check the list of contest entries (link to be provided after March 1st) that are already registered before you register yours.
- Register as early as you can - as soon as you decide what you are going to do.
- Provide the optional brief description of your planned entry. This can be a simple statement of the problem your entry will solve or the need your entry will fill.
Sun Contributor Agreement
You must sign and return the Sun Contributor Agreement (SCA) when you submit your contest entry.
DATES: Registration is open from March 1, 2008 through June 14, 2008.
Who can enter this contest?
This contest is open to all persons who are not an employee, contractor, including their immediate families, of Sun Microsystems Inc or its subsidiaries.
Please refer to the Contest Rules -- Add link. for a list of countries which can not participate in this program.
If you have not yet participated in OpenSolaris, join a community, a project, a forum or other discussion. Use OpenSolaris. Study OpenSolaris.
What kind of work can I enter?
The OpenSolaris contest is open to a broad range of entries. You can enter code that will eventually be putback into OpenSolaris (such as a device driver), or you can write a program that runs on top of the OS (such as a tool or game), or your entry can be something that is not code at all. You could enter materials for an operating systems course based on OpenSolaris (lecture notes, student guide, labs). Awards Program Contest Ideas lists some ideas for entries. These are just suggestions to get you started thinking about what you want to do.
All software components must execute on an OpenSolaris-based operating environment and must be released as open source.
Work on an entry could have started before the contest launched, but the work must be completed or improved after the contest launch.
Can a team register for this contest?
You can form a team or collaborate with others. Each member of the team must sign a separate copy of the Sun Contributor Agreement and the Affadavit.
Teams must declare the names of their team members and the percentages of how potential prizes will be divided; all team members must sign this document and provide it at the time the entry is submitted. A digitally scanned image attached as a PDF file is an acceptable form for this document.
Can I submit work that I did as part of an OpenSolaris community or project?
Yes, but make sure you submit only the part of that work that is your original work, created solely by you.
Can I submit more than one contest entry?
Yes. For additional entries, just register again and describe the additional entry.
Contest Submissions
How do I submit my contest entry?
To submit your contest entry, go to ftp://opensolaris.org/, create a login, and upload your contest entry as described below. If you have any problems with the submission process, send email to contest-submission.
Submit your contest entry in a single compressed archive (for example, .zip or .tar.gz). The archive must include at least the following information:
- An image file of a signed scanned Sun Contributor Agreement signed by you. For team entries, each team member must sign and submit a separate agreement.
- For team entries, an image file of a signed scanned document listing all team members and the percentage of the potential prize each may be awarded signed by all team members.
- A README file that contains at least the following information:
- Your name and email address. For team entries, include the name and email address of each team member.
- The original copyright owner's name(s) and the copyright date(s).
- Description: What problem does this entry solve? What need does this entry fill? How does this entry work? How does someone use this entry? Show that the entry does what the problem statement says it does.
- What OpenSolaris distribution does this work with? What version? What hardware platform?
- All instructions needed to assemble the contents of the archive into a usable form (such as build instructions).
- A usable form of your submission such as an executable binary, package, video, or PDF.
- All source materials required to recreate the usable form and build environment such as Makefiles, source code, XML, LaTeX.
- If there is any specific hardware that is required to demonstrate the entry, it must be shipped to and from the judges at the entrant's expense.
If a difference is found between the source and the usable form, that entry will be disqualified.
DATES: The earliest date you can submit a contest entry is March 2, 2008. The final submission date is June 15, 2008.
Note: Submitting for the contest is separate from contributing to the OpenSolaris code base.
Your contest entry is not automatically a contribution to the OpenSolaris code base. If you want to contribute your contest entry to the OpenSolaris code base, you must do that separately. First submit your entry to the contest as described above. Then follow the process described below to contribute your entry to the OpenSolaris code base. You do not need to wait until contest judging is complete.
How do I contribute to the OpenSolaris code base?
- If you have not already signed the SCA and received a Sun contributor number, first, sign and return the SCA (Sun Contributor Agreement). Be sure you read and understand it. The SCA is the same for all Sun-sponsored open source projects. You will receive a Sun contributor number.
- Search the OpenSolaris bug database to determine whether your contest entry fixes an existing defect or satisfies an existing enhancement request.
- If you find a CR (change request) that is related to your contest entry, note the state of the CR. Is an engineer already assigned to the CR? Does the status indicate that a fix is already available? Check the request sponsor table to determine whether someone else has already started to work on this CR.
- If you do not find any CR that is related to your contest entry, click Report a bug or request a feature to submit a new enhancement request (RFE) that your contest entry will satisfy. Be sure to select the field that indicates you want to work on this CR.
- If the CR is not already listed in the request sponsor table, send email to request-sponsor AT opensolaris DOT org, stating that you want to work on this CR and asking for a sponsor for this work. Tell them you already have a solution completed. Include the following information in your email:
- CR ID number
- CR category, subcategory, and synopsis/summary
- Your full name
- Your Sun contributor number that you received after you signed the SCA
Your code contribution will be required to be tested (see the OpenSolaris Testing community and will be required to undergo code review. Your code contribution probably also will undergo design and architectural review. For more information, see Improving the OpenSolaris project.
Contest Judging Criteria and Scoring
Code entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Usefulness to the end users and/or the community (33%)
- competitive need relative to other operating systems
- attractiveness to users
- usability of implementation
- documentation
- timeliness to market
- Technical difficulty of implementation (33%)
- depth of knowledge required for implementation
- quantity of code, functions, and features
- quality and cleanliness of code
- Innovation (34%)
- impact on market
- originality of implementation
- market potential for adoption
Non-code entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Usefulness to the end users and/or the community (33%)
- public appeal
- usefulness to the community
- Quality (33%)
- quality of work (syntax, diction, grammar, editing, visual artwork)
- style (of writing or artwork)
- publication readiness
- layout, direction, animation
- professionalism
- Innovation (34%)
- originality of work
- interpretation of objective or theme
- market potential and impact
Each entry will receive a score from 0 to 10 on each of the criteria. Those scores will be multiplied by their weighting factors and then summed to get the final score.
For example, if a software entry received the following scores:
- usefulness: 9
- technical difficulty: 8
- innovation: 5
then the final score for that entry would be:
- 9x0.33 + 8x0.33 + 5x0.34 = 7.31
out of a possible 10 points.
If necessary, the innovation score will be used as the tie breaker.
