The GNOME Foundation, Inc. (“GNOME”) organizes and sponsors the Community Engagement Challenge (the “Challenge”), a contest to promote engagement of beginning coders in the free and open-source software (“FOSS”) community. The purpose of the Challenge is to encourage individuals or teams to submit stimulating ideas that will connect the next generation of coders to the FOSS community and keep them involved for years to come.
Participation in the Challenge constitutes the entrant’s agreement and acceptance of these Official Rules. By submitting an entry, you, the entrant, have reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the Official Rules.
NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OR CONTRIBUTION TO GNOME FOUNDATION WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
Entries may be submitted by individuals or teams. The Challenge is open to residents of any country except the following: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, or the Crimea region of the Ukraine (excluded due to U.S. country-based sanctions.) Similarly, Blocked Persons on the Specially Designated Nationals List are excluded from the Challenge due to U.S. restrictions. Residents of Brazil and Italy are excluded due to local laws restricting contests. Entrants from other jurisdictions may not be eligible to receive the full prizes set out in these Challenge Rules. Entry is void where prohibited by law.
Employees of the GNOME Foundation and Endless, their affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, and suppliers, and immediate family members (spouse, parents, siblings, and children) and/or those living in the same household of Employees are not eligible to participate in the Challenge.
This Challenge seeks entries that will introduce beginning coders to the FOSS community, help improve their coding skillset and support their FOSS community engagement for years to come (“Program Goals”). Entries should therefore target beginning coders, ideally of high school and college age (16-25).
Apart from what is set out in these Challenge Rules, there are no restrictions on the form submissions must take: submissions may be software projects, educational materials, videos, games, or anything else that promotes engagement of beginning coders with the FOSS community.
The Challenge is divided into three phases—Idea, Proof of Concept, and Sample Product—with prizes awarded at each stage. Entries for the three phases are due as follows:
Entries for Phases 2 and 3 will only be accepted from entrants who submitted winning entries for all preceding phases. Entries will be accepted online at https://www.gnome.org/challenge/ between now and 11:59 P.M. US/Eastern time on the due date for the applicable phase. GNOME may, in its sole discretion, extend these deadlines. Entries submitted after the due date for a phase, including any extensions, will be disqualified.
The Challenge must be entered by submitting digital files using the online form provided at https://www.gnome.org/challenge/ by the designated deadline Each entry must meet the Program Goals. These are the requirements for each Challenge phase:
Phase One: Idea
Phase Two: Proof of Concept
Phase Three: Final
Each entry must meet all Submission Requirements (see below) to be eligible to win a prize. Incomplete entries or entries which are not in alignment with the Contest Rules will be disqualified. Each entrant or team may submit multiple entries to the Challenge, but each idea must be submitted in a separate proposal. Any attempt of circumvention of the rules will result in immediate disqualification from the Challenge.
Entrants must accurately complete all required fields on the submission form (including, if applicable, any instructions on how to properly upload supporting materials) or the entry will be characterized as incomplete and will not qualify.
All submissions must be:
As the Challenge promotes free software participation, strong preference will be given to projects that are produced and designed to be edited and used with free and open source software. For example, a graphic design project created in Inkscape would be preferred to one created in Illustrator, and a game that uses free software libraries would be preferred to one designed for Steam.
Submissions will take into consideration and scored according to the following criteria (the “Judging Criteria”).
Primary considerations:
Secondary considerations:
Winners will be selected according to the Judging Criteria under the supervision of GNOME. Winners will be informed about the prize at the email address providing with their submission, on or about the following dates:
GNOME is not responsible if a winner fails to receive the notice about the prize due to any security settings or provision of incorrect contact information. If a winner fails to respond within the required time period, the prize may be forfeited and an alternate winner may be selected based on the Judging Criteria.
If a winner is considered a minor in their place of residence, GNOME reserves the right to place the prize in the name of the winner’s parent or legal guardian who will be requested to sign a Declaration of Claim on the winner’s behalf.
If a winner is disqualified for any reason, GNOME is not obliged to provide an alternate prize or extend the contest period in any way, and all privileges as winner will be terminated immediately. Entrants who provide false, fraudulent or deceptive entries or who engage in false, fraudulent or deceptive acts in connection with the Challenge will be disqualified.
Winners of the Challenge phases will receive the following prizes, as determined by GNOME:
All entrants will have access to an online forum to communicate with other entrants and participation is strongly encouraged. Phase 3 entrants will have access to industry mentors. Please note GNOME’s Code of Conduct must be followed at all times and any violation could result in disqualification.
GNOME reserves the right to add additional prizes or categories should it be deemed appropriate.
Cash Prizes will be awarded as checks or bank transfers from a U.S. bank. Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash or substituted for another prize, and are non-transferable. If the winning entrant for any prize is a team, the prize will be awarded to the team to be divided between members as they choose. Prize-related expenses including all federal, state, and local taxes represent the sole financial responsibility of the winner. The prize is given with no written, express, or implied warranty. Any prize not claimed within 30 days may, in GNOME’s sole discretion, be forfeited by the winner and remain the property of GNOME.
To claim their prizes, winners are required to provide (1) a valid government-issued photo identification depicting proof of age and (2) a valid taxpayer identification number or social security number. The taxpayer identification number will be used for tax-reporting purposes only. GNOME reserves the right to deny the prize if the winner fails to provide satisfactory identification.
By participating in the Challenge, each entrant represents and warrants that: (1) they are the exclusive owner of the copyright and all other proprietary rights in any and all materials and content submitted by the entrant to enter the Challenge; (2) they have the right to grant to any third party the right to use, reproduce, distribute, perform and display all entry materials. All entries must have appropriate clearances, permissions and releases prior to uploading, or may be eliminated from the Challenge. Any unauthorized samples or performances of another artist’s material could be subject to fines, royalty fees, and/or legal action, for which the Entrant agrees to indemnify, defend and hold GNOME harmless.
By entering this Challenge and submitting their entries, each entrant understands and agrees that GNOME and/or anyone acting on the behalf of GNOME has the right, where and for the period permitted by law, to use the content and personal information for any promotional purposes without limitation and without any further compensation, notice, review, or consent. Notwithstanding the foregoing license, entrants shall retain ownership of all copyright and other rights in their entries.
GNOME is not responsible for problems with Challenge entries, including, but not limited to, entries which are lost, late, misdirected, damaged, incomplete, illegible, or cannot be completed due to electronic or technical difficulties.
By participating in the Challenge, you consent to the use of personal information about you, if you are a winner, by GNOME, and third parties acting on their behalf. Such personal information includes, but is not limited to, your name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions, comments and hometown and country of residence. It may be used in any existing or newly created media, worldwide without further payment or consideration or right of review, unless prohibited by law. Authorized use includes advertising and promotional purposes. The duration of your consent is for a period of three years following the conclusion of the Challenge.
By entering the Challenge, each entrant agrees to release and hold harmless GNOME and its subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising and promotion agencies, partners, representatives, agents, successors, assigns, employees, officers, and directors from any liability, illness, injury, death, loss, litigation, claim, or damage that may occur, directly or indirectly, whether caused by negligence or not, from:
By entering the Challenge, you agree to the following:
The Released Parties are not responsible for incomplete, late, misdirected, damaged, lost, illegible, or incomprehensible Submissions or for address or email address changes of the entrants. Proof of sending or submitting will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by GNOME.
If for any reason any entrant’s Submission is determined to have not been received or been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, the entrant’s sole remedy is to request the opportunity to resubmit its Submission. Such request must be made promptly after the entrant knows or should have known there was a problem, and will be determined at the sole discretion of GNOME.
THIS CONTEST IS GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, WITHOUT RESPECT TO CONFLICT OF LAW DOCTRINES. As a condition of participating in this Challenge, the entrant agrees that any and all disputes that cannot be resolved between the parties, and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Challenge, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, exclusively before a court of competent jurisdiction located in California.
GENERAL CONDITIONS
Information submitted with an entry is subject to the Privacy Policy stated on the GNOME’s website at https://www.gnome.org/privacy/.
GNOME may promote the Challenge on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Snapchat, and Tik Tok (each a “Social Media Platform”). The entrant understands and agrees that any such promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, any Social Media Platform. GNOME and each entrant hereby releases each Social Media Platform and all its officers, directors, agents, employees, successors and assigns, from any and all liabilities, claims, demands, actions or causes of action arising from GNOME’s promotion of the Challenge on its platform.
Participation in the Challenge constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules. By entering, entrant agrees that all decisions related to the Challenge that are made pursuant to these Official Rules are final and binding, and that all such decisions are at the sole discretion of GNOME.
The sponsor of the Challenge is GNOME Foundation, #117, 21c Orinda Way, Orinda, CA 94563, USA. The GNOME Foundation is a non-profit organization that furthers the goals of the GNOME Project, helping it to create a free software computing platform for the general public that is designed to be elegant, efficient, and easy to use. For more information about the GNOME project and the GNOME Foundation, please visit https://www.gnome.org/.