[awards-program] Friday Call Notes

[Ben Rockwood]

* The formal contest is described in the Sun Press Release as: "*program 
called the Open Source Community Innovation Awards Program, which will 
foster innovation and recognize some of the most interesting initiatives 
within Sun-sponsored open source communities worldwide. "*
( http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-12/sunflash.20071205.1.xml )
** Therefore; all entries must been "Open Source", commonly defined by 
Sun as being licensed under an OSI-Approved License.
** In any questions of "quality" over "innovation", Innovation must by 
definition win.... "Innovation Awards Program".

* The submission requirements should be thus:

## Start ##
Qualified entries must be submitted as a compressed archive (.zip, 
.tar.gz, etc.) containing at least the following:
 1)  A 'LICENSE' file containing the OSI-Approved license covering the 
submission
 2)  A 'README' file containing, but not limited to:
    a) The original copyright owners name and date
    b) Submission description
    c) Information required to assemble the contents into a usable form 
(build instructions, etc)
 3) A "usable" form of your submission: executable binary, package, 
video, PDF, etc as applicable
 4) Any and all applicable source materials required to created the 
"usable" form and applicable build environment.  (Makefiles, source 
code, XML/LaTeX source, etc.)

Any entries that are found to possess differences between the binary and 
source forms will be immediately disqualified.
## End ##

I might further elaborate in the FAQ by saying:

"The spirit of Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) is the ability to 
take an existing work, modify it, and redistribute it.  Omission of 
source material in the final work is considered "proprietary" because it 
can not be recreated by a 3rd party.  This applies to artwork in the 
same way that it applies to source in the same way that it applies to 
documentation; the only difference between the creator and the recipient 
is talent, not tools.  While proprietary tools may be utilized, such as 
using iMovie to create a video tutorial, the tool is not required in 
duplication, however the source material is.

"It is therefore encouraged, however not required, to supply as much 
"source" material as possible.  In the case of an image, this may be 
accomplished by including the XPS image containing layers, masks, etc.

"While not strictly required, all documentation or presentation style 
submissions should be submitted in PDF format."

* Finally, on the prize structure...  I see two polar options which 
really come down to determining what we get:

 1) The "Engineering" Side of me says: Have fewer, bigger prizes that 
encourage submissions to be as best as they can to compete for the 
prizes given that the odds of winning are decreased.  (5 Prizes total)
 2) The "Marketing" Side of me says: Have more, smaller prizes (as we do 
now) that encourage submission from as many people in as many forms as 
possible given that the odds of winning are increased. (50 Prizes total)

If there is $50,000 to be made, I might take 2 weeks off work to devote 
to my entry... if there is only $5,000 or $10,000 I probably will just 
do so in my spare time.  At least, so goes my argument.


benr.