House Student App Contest

Contest Rules

 

Can I Participate?

 

  1. Members of Congress must opt-in for their district to participate in this competition. If a Member does not opt-in, constituents in their district will be ineligible to participate. To find out if whether your Representative is participating, you may contact them using the information available at: http://www.house.gov .   

  2. To determine if your residence or school is in a participating district go to http://StudentAppChallenge.house.gov and enter your home or public school address.

  3. The Challenge is open only to high school students who reside in a participating district or who are eligible to attend public high school in that district.  Individuals submitting on behalf of teams must meet the eligibility requirements for individual Contestants.

  4. Participants must be at least 13 years old as of February 1, 2014.

  5. Participants may compete individually or in teams of up to 4 students. If students attend school outside of their home congressional district, they may compete in either their home district or their school district. If competing as a team, 2 members of the team must be from the same district.

  6. The Competition is subject to all applicable United States federal laws and regulations. Participation constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules.

 

When Do I Enter?

  1. Between February 1ST, 2014 at approximately 12 PM Eastern Standard Time (“EST”) and April 30TH, 2014 at 12 PM EST (the “Competition Submission Period”).

  2. Administrator’s computer is the official time keeping device for this Competition.

 

How Do I Enter?

A. Register:

  1. During the Competition Submission Period, create an account on www.challengepost.com and register for the House Student App Challenge.  Upload the entry form on the site so your Member of Congress can communicate with you during the Submission Period.

B. Online Requirements (on ChallengePost.COM):

  1. Each Contestant will be required to provide the following as part of the Submission:

  • A link to the Application Demonstration Video.  ChallengePost supports YouTube or VIMEO.  Please note that your entry may be judged in its entirety based on this video.  It is important to demonstrate the scope and quality of your application in this video.  No more than two minutes in length.

  • A link to the Developer Video.  ChallengePost supports YouTube or VIMEO.  The participant will describe how they created the app and what they learned.  No more than one minute in length.

  • An entry form

  1. After the Submission Period has ended, the Submission cannot be modified in any way before the completion of judging.

  2. All submissions must be in English.

  3. An individual may appear on only one entry, either alone or as part of a team.

  4. Submissions must not be indecent, defamatory, in obvious bad taste, demonstrate a lack of respect for public morals or conduct or adversely affects the reputation of congressional districts.

  5. Submissions must not: a) be illegal under applicable laws; b) depict hatred, defame, threaten a specific community in the society or incite violence; c) contain vulgar language or violence; or d) contain pornography, obscenity or sexual activity.

  6. Submissions must a) be original; b) be solely owned by Contestant such that no other party has any rights or interest, whether known or unknown; and c) not violate the Intellectual Property, common law or privacy rights of other parties.  

  7. Contestants will own the intellectual property rights to their Submission, but will grant to Congress and Administrator a royalty free license to, without limitation: a) Post the Submissions online; b) Make the Winners available for the course of the Competition and 1 months after the conclusion of the Competition Submission Period; and c) Utilize the Submissions for noncommercial purposes for a period of 12 months after the conclusion of the Competition Submission Period

 

C. Display of Submissions

  1. Members have the right to display submitted material on their web site on WWW.HOUSE.GOV.
  2. Each district winner will be displayed on an overall contest site on StudentAppChallenge.house.gov and CHALLENGE.GOV.

 

Winner Selection and District Judging Criteria

  1. Application Demonstration Videos will be viewed by District Judges based on the criteria identified below to select finalists. Then the finalists will be judged again on the criteria identified below.  

  2. The Judges have the right to request access to the Application and source code in person or via any reasonable manner to verify that the Application functions and operates as stated in the Submission. Failure by a Contestant to honor such a request will result in the Submission’s immediate disqualification.  

  3. Awards will be judged based on the following criteria:

  1. Quality of the idea (including creativity and originality)

  2. Implementation of the idea (including user experience and design)

  3. *Demonstrated excellence of coding and programming skills.

  1. *Members may elect to judge entries that are conceptual and do not have a working program.  Members making that election will notify their contestants.

  2. District Staff reserve the right to substitute or modify the judging panel at anytime for any reason. Judges do have the right to withdrawal without advance notice in the event of extenuating circumstances beyond their control. Judges will be fair and impartial. A judge may elect to recuse him or herself from judging a Submission, if in the judge’s sole discretion it is not appropriate for him or her to judge that particular Submission because of a past or current relationship with that particular Contestant. A Submission will not be at a disadvantage if one or more judge recuses himself or herself.

  3. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible Submissions received and the quality of the Submissions. The approximate dates for the judging panel are between May 1ST, 2014 at 12PM EST and May 30th, 2014 at 12PM EST

 

Prizes

  1. Each district may provide prizes to district winners. A Member office may provide authorized gifts or awards of nominal value as part of the app competition. Gifts authorized by the Members’ Handbook include certificates, folders, and frames of a nominal value.   

 

  1. If the participating Member decides to host an awards ceremony, finalists will get the chance to present their apps to Judges, Congressional staffers and community leaders. The winning app in each district will be featured on the House.gov website.

 

  1. If the winner is not able to attend the district awards ceremony, the prize will be mailed to the winner’s address within 45 days of receipt of the signed affidavit(s) of eligibility and liability/publicity release(s) form(s).

 

 

Verification of Potential Winners

  1. ALL POTENTIAL COMPETITION WINNERS ARE SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION BY JUDGES WHOSE DECISIONS ARE FINAL AND BINDING IN ALL MATTERS RELATED TO THE COMPETITION. Potential winners must continue to comply with all terms and conditions of these Official Rules. The potential winners will be notified on or about June 1ST, 2014. The potential winners will be required to sign and return to Congressional staff within ten (10) business days of the date notice is sent, an affidavit of eligibility, and liability/publicity release (except where prohibited) in order to claim his/her prize if applicable.

 

Entry Conditions and Release

By entering, you agree to the following conditions and release:  Each Contestant agrees to comply with and be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Administrators, and/or the Competition judges which are binding and final in all matters relating to this Competition.

 

Publicity

Except where prohibited, participation in the Competition constitutes winners’ consent to Administrators’ and their agents’ use of winner’s name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions and/or hometown and state for promotional purposes in any media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration.

 

General Conditions

  1. Administrators reserve the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Competition, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Administrator’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Competition, as determined by Administrators in their sole discretion. Administrators reserve the right in their sole discretion to disqualify any individual or Competitor it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Competition or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner.

  2. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Competition may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Administrators reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Administrator’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

 

Limitations of Liability

The Administrators are not responsible for:

  1. any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Competition;

  2. technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software;

  3. unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Competition;

  4. technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Competition or the processing of entries; or

  5. any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Competition or receipt or use or misuse of any prize.

 

If for any reason an entrant’s Submission is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is to provide another Submission.

 

Privacy

Administrators collect personal information from you when you enter the Competition. The information collected is subject to the privacy policies located at http://challengepost.com/privacy and http://www.house.gov/content/site_tools/privacy_policy.php

 

Competition Results

For results of the competition go to StudentAppChallenge.house.govon or about June 15, 2014.

 

Administrators

Administrators: (1) Committee on House Administration, 1309 Longworth House Office Building, Washington DC 20515; and (2) ChallengePost, Inc., 425 W. 13th Street, Suite #504, New York, NY 10014.