Difference between revisions of "OpenOffice.org Developer Article Contest"

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===What can be won?===
 
===What can be won?===
Each winner gets $750. (In what way/format???)
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Each winner gets $750. The money will be transferred preferably via PayPal, or via bank transfer otherwise.
 
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===What criteria do article have to meet to get accepted?===
 
===What criteria do article have to meet to get accepted?===

Revision as of 15:27, 17 January 2006

OpenOffice.org Developer Article Contest Rules

What are the main goals of the contest?

The goal of the contest is to generate more developer documentation, and to promote OpenOffice.org to developers at the same time.


What is the task of the contest?

Developers are asked to write articles about developer topics like porting, addon and filter development (e.g. new wizards, Calc functions, chart types, etc.), bug fixing, etc.


What can be won?

Each winner gets $750. The money will be transferred preferably via PayPal, or via bank transfer otherwise.

What criteria do article have to meet to get accepted?

A submitted article has to have at least 2000 words (about two pages of text) excluding embedded source code snippets and screenshots. Only articles written in English can be accepted. However, teams can submit articles together, so that one developer can create the content and someone else can translate it to English. Submissions have to be sent to the mailing list contest@openoffice.org (does not exist yet!) on or before the submission deadline date. Only content that has been created AFTER the start date of the contest can be submitted, e.g. old articles and blog entries cannot be used.

What criteria will be used to choose a winner?

There will be no 100% scientific and measurable criteria. Instead, the selection committee will choose a winner based on their preferences. Nevertheless, the following criteria will influence the chances of winning:

  • relevance to developers
  • existing and urgent gaps
  • "cool stuff"
  • amount of sample code
  • comprehensibility
  • length (not too long, not too short)
  • illustrations (screenshots, diagrams)
  • enables new developers
  • etc. etc. etc.


What will be done with the articles?

Every month a committee will pick the best article from the pool of articles. Articles which did not win initially, will stay in the pool, so that they can still win in subsequent months.

For reference purposes ALL articles will get published on the OpenOffice.org website under the PDL and the JCA. In addition, the articles will be published in the OpenOffice.org Wiki, so that more developers can build upon existing content. Nevertheless, authors will still be allowed to use the article content somewhere else, e.g. for a magazine, book or personal web site.


Who can participate?

Everybody who is not a member of the selection committee can participate in the contest. If someone wins in one period he/she has to stay out of the contest for the following three periods.


Who is running the contest?

OpenOffice.org with the support of Team OpenOffice.org e.V. and extra sponsorship from Sun Microsystems are running the Developer Article Contest.


Who is in the selection committee?

The selection committee consists of at least 10 and no more than 15 people. Initially, the following people will be in the selection committee:

  • Jürgen Schmidt
  • Stephan Bergmann
  • Andreas Schlüns
  • Carsten Driesner
  • Pavel Janík
  • Kurt Cagle
  • Kay Ramme
  • Michael Meeks
  • Charles-H. Schulz
  • Stefan Taxhet
  • Erwin Tenhumberg

Someone who has won the contest cannot win in the contest again for the following three periods. However, the winner can, if he/she is willing to, become a member of the selection committee for three periods.


When will the contest start?

The contest will start on February 1, 2006. The first submission deadline is February 28.


When will the contest end?

The contest will at least run for six months. Depending on the success, it might get extended to twelve months.


How often will a winner be selected?

A winner will be selected for every month. The announcement of the winner will happen in the second half of the month for the previous month. For example, the first contest period will start on February 1 and end on February 28 (the submission deadline). The winner for February will be announced after March 15, but before April 1.


When is the deadline for every contest period?

The deadline for every contest period, i.e. every month, is the last day of the month. Thus, for the February contest period the last possible submission day is February 28, 2006.

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