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Community Innovation Awards FAQ

Prizes
Registration
Sun Contributor Agreement
Eligibility
Entries
Submission
Judging Criteria and Scoring

Still have a question? Send email to contest dash submit at sun dot com or to awards dash program at opensolaris dot org.

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). Contest Entries lists the entries that users have already registered for this contest.

What are the Prizes?

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. See Judging Criteria and Scoring below. In the contest portion of the OpenSolaris awards program, 29 prizes are available:

  • One Grand Prize: $30,000
  • Three First Prizes: $15,000 each
  • Two Second Prizes: $6,000 each
  • Third 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.

Contest Registration

How do I register for this contest?

To register for the contest, go to the registration and submission site and follow the directions given in Step 1, "Register for the Contest." You will be sent a password that you can then use to sign in to the site. You can sign in at any time and modify your registration.

To register for the contest, you must already be a registered user of the OpenSolaris site.

If you have any problems with the registration process, send email to contest dash submit at sun dot com.

If you registered but did not receive your password:

  • Make sure you entered your email address correctly when you registered. Your password will be sent to that email address.
  • Make sure your spam-blocking tool allows you to receive email from contest dash submit at sun dot com.

Sun Contributor Agreement

You must sign and return the Sun Contributor Agreement (SCA) before you submit your contest entry.

Note: Allow 3 days to receive your SCA number after you submit your signed SCA.

Registration Information

Information you will be asked to provide includes your name, your OpenSolaris community user name, your email address, and your SCA number.

Next, complete Step 2, "Add New Contest Entry" or sign in and click the "Add Contest Entry" link in the left hand navigation pane. In this step, information you will be asked to provide includes the type of entry you will be submitting (a kernel module, an application, university curriculum, other documentation, etc.), title of the entry, and a brief description of the entry. You also will be required to read and accept the official rules of the contest.

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. You might want to check the list of contest entries that are already registered before you register yours.

Note: You must complete both Step 1 and Step 2 before you can submit your entry.

DATE:

Registration is open through June 13, 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.

Sun Campus Ambassadors are eligible to participate with the following additional restrictions:

  • Ambassador's participation must be voluntary, and without direction, encouragement, or other involvement from Sun Microsystems, Inc.
  • Ambassadors must not be paid by Sun Microsystems Inc. for any work conducted in conjunction with the Program.
  • Ambassadors may not submit any work that they have conducted for Sun Microsystems, Inc. as part of a Proposal or Project.
  • Ambassadors must work on Proposals and Projects outside of scheduled Sun Microsystems Inc. work hours.
  • Ambassadors may not use any Sun Microsystems Inc. resources to work on a Proposal or Project.

Please refer to the Contest Rules 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.

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.

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). Contest Entries lists the entries that users have already registered for this contest.

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 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 sign in again and click Step 2, "Add New Contest Entry" or click the "Add Contest Entry" link in the left hand navigation pane.

Contest Submissions

Sun Contributor Agreement

You must sign and return the Sun Contributor Agreement (SCA) before you submit your contest entry.

Note: Allow 3 days to receive your SCA number after you submit your signed SCA.

How do I submit my contest entry?

To submit your contest entry, go to the registration and submission site and follow the instructions in Step 3, "Upload Your Awards Entry Submission(s)." Your contest entry must meet the requirements described below. You must have already registered for the contest. If you have any problems with the submission process, send email to contest dash submit at sun dot com.

Note: You must complete both Step 1 (Register for the Contest) and Step 2 (Declare Your Contest Entry) before you can start Step 3 (Upload Your Awards Entry 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). Please see the clarification below.
    • 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.

Copyright Clarification

A couple of entrants have asked what we mean by, "original copyright owner's name(s) and the copyright date(s)." We cannot give specific advice, but here is a clarification:

The source files you submit should include attribution statements.

Any files that are not original to you should include the copyright notice and any license or license header found in the source files from which you derived your module.

There are various online resources on the subject of copyright notice, or you can consider following the copyright format used by one of the open source license templates. For example, the BSD template uses the following format where "copyright holder" would be your name:

Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder>.

DATE:

The final submission date is June 14, 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?

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.