THE MICROSOFT MEA WINDOWS PHONE 7 CHALLENGE CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES

Transcription

1 THE MICROSOFT MEA WINDOWS PHONE 7 CHALLENGE CONTEST Common terms used in these rules: OFFICIAL RULES These are the official rules that govern how the Microsoft MEA Windows Phone 7 Challenge contest promotion will operate. This promotion will be simply referred to as the Contest throughout the rest of these rules. In these rules, we, our, and us refer to Microsoft Gulf FZ LLC the sponsor of the Contest. You, yourself refers to an eligible Contest entrant. 1. CONTEST DESCRIPTION: This is a skill-based Contest and chance plays no part in the determination of the winner(s). The MEA Windows Phone 7 Challenge is a student technology Contest. It stimulates students from Middle East and Africa to develop Windows Phone 7 compatible applications. So students gain real life experiences, make new friends, and turn their ideas into reality. The brightest young minds join together and, using technology, take on the world's toughest problems. Contest This Contest seeks innovative Contest entries based on Microsoft Windows Phone technologies that address the theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. The Contest is split into five Rounds ( Round ). There will be a winning team for every Round. The first four Rounds are considered as qualifying Rounds. The fifth Round is the Great Final where the winning projects of the previous Rounds will be judged and rewarded with the final prize. In summary the Contest Rounds and timeframe are: Round Type Dates 1 Qualifying December 1 st. 31 st Qualifying January 1 st 30 th 3 Qualifying February 1 st 28 th 4 Qualifying March 1 st - 31 st 5 Great Final April 1 st 20 th

2 A team can only win one Round. A student can participate in only one team throughout the Contest. We encourage you to carefully review the details for this Contest before registering or submitting an entry since it has unique eligibility requirements, methods of entry, content and technical requirements. The whole Contest is governed by these Official Rules. If there are any inconsistencies between these Official Rules, and other web page or printed material, these Official Rules will govern. The object of this Contest is to create an original XAP Application package in Silverlight or XNA Game Studio. For the purpose of this Contest, each XAP Application package you create and submit in the Contest in addition to other required deliverables will be called an entry. All eligible entries received will be judged using the criteria described below to determine winners. 2. WHAT ARE THE START AND END DATES? This Contest starts at 12:01 AM [Greenwich Mean Time ( GMT )] on December 1 st 2010 and ends at 11:59 PM [GMT] on April 20 th. Entries must be received within the Entry Period to be eligible. The Entry Period consists of the five (5) separated Rounds as described below. Round Type Registration 1 Qualifying 2 Qualifying 3 Qualifying 4 Qualifying December 1st - 20th 2010 January 1st - 20th February 1st - 20th March 1st - 22nd 5 Great Final - Synopsis + Video + Source Code Submission December 21st - 25th 2010 January 21st - 26th February 21-24th March 23rd - 27th April 3rd - 14th Judment December 26th - 31st 2010 January 26th - 30th February 25th - 28th March 28th - 31st April 15th - April 19th Winning Team Announcement January 3rd February 2nd March 2nd April 2nd April 20th

3 3. CAN YOU ENTER? You are eligible to enter this Contest if you meet the following requirements: You are a legal resident of Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Polynesia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indian Ocean Islands, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, New Caledonia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe and you are 16 years or older at the time of entry; and You are actively enrolled as a student at an accredited educational institution that grants high-school or college/university (or equivalent) degrees (including home schools) at any time between January 1, 2010 and April 20th, ; and You are not an employee or intern of Microsoft Corporation, or an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary; and You are not involved in any part of the execution or administration of this Contest; and You are not an immediate family member of (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Contest; and You are part of a team as described hereafter in the paragraph Team Composition. If you are a Microsoft campus representative (e.g. a Microsoft Student Partner and you meet the eligibility criteria set forth above, you may enter the Contest, but you are prohibited from using Microsoft property or resources, including without limitation: Microsoft networks, hardware tools and technology resources and/or the counsel of Microsoft employees, in connection with the creation or execution of an entry. Very simply, you cannot use any resources which are not also broadly available to all other students. If you have any questions, please contact us. This Contest is void outside the geographic area identified above and wherever else prohibited by law.

4 CHANGES IN ELIGIBILITY STATUS If, at any time after we verify your eligibility status, you experience a change in eligibility status due to special circumstances such as acceptance of an internship or offer of employment from Microsoft, a Microsoft subsidiary, or anyone else that is involved in the execution and administration of this Contest, you must contact us immediately and explain the circumstances. If you fail to notify us of a change in eligibility status, you may be disqualified from this Contest and will not be allowed to win any prizes. TEAM COMPOSITION This is a team Contest, and then the following additional rules and regulations apply: The size of your Team can have from one up to four members. All Team members must be legal residents of the country the Team is representing. The remaining Team members do not need to be legal residents of the same country/region, but your Team can only represent one (1) country. Your Team does not need to consist of members from the same academic institution. One of the registered Team members (defined as Team leader in the Contest website) must create a new Team, define its name and registered other Team members. To participate in a Team Contest as a single team member, you must create a new Team and join it as an individual during the designated registration period as defined in the table here above in section 2. Once you sign up as part of a Team for a Contest, you cannot change Teams or otherwise remove yourself or anyone else from your Team after the close of one Round of the Contest. Each Team is solely responsible for its own cooperation and teamwork. In no event will we officiate in any dispute regarding the conduct or cooperation of any Team or its members.

5 4. WHAT CONSTITUTES AN ELIGIBLE ENTRY? You can have only one entry per Contest Round and can participate of only one team throughout the Contest. Besides, to be eligible for judging an entry must meet the following content/technical requirements: Registration for the Contest You should register and submit your team information through the Contest website ( Submission your XAP Application Synopsis Your Team will develop an XAP Application Synopsis which includes each of the following elements: 1. A name for your XAP Application 2. A short description of your Team s XAP Application, including how it addresses the Theme Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. a. If pre-existing source code is incorporated into the XAP Application, then this pre-existing source code must be clearly identified in the XAP Application description and must not infringe on any third party rights, and must be used in accordance with all applicable licensing and use terms. b. The description should not exceed 10,000 characters Submission your XAP Application Video Your Team will present your XAP Application in the form of a video that depicts the XAP Application's functionality or gameplay and provides an opportunity for your Team to explain the features as they are presented. 1. The video content should clearly address each of the judging criteria outlined below 2. All audio and text in the video should be in the English language 3. The video should be submitted as a.wmv. We recommend creating your screen capture using Microsoft Expression Encoder 3 Screen Capture which is available to students for free at DreamSpark. 4. The video should not exceed five (5) minutes 5. The video should not exceed 250MB. 6. The emphasis of the video should be on the XAP Application itself. Video production quality will not be scored in the judging process. 7. [IMPORTANT] You should store the video on YouTube and provide a link to it through the Contest site. It is your responsibility to make sure the video is available and meeting the technical requirements above.

6 Submission your XAP Application Source Code Your Team will present your XAP Application Source Code. [IMPORTANT] The projects intellectual property belongs to its authors. Microsoft will use the submitted source code only for authenticity check. Technical Requirements In addition to the unique entry requirements for each Round as described above, your Team s entry materials must meet the following content and technical requirements: 1. Your Team s XAP Application must be built using Windows Phone Developer Tools RTW which consists of: Visual Studio 2010 express for Windows Phone Windows Phone Emulator Resources Silverlight 4 tools for Visual Studio XNA Game Studio 4.0 Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone Download the tools free at 2. All XAP Applications must be built to function on the Windows Phone 7 platform. 3. Your Team s XAP Application must address a social cause connected to the Theme: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. 4. All entry materials must be submitted and presented in the English language. If a translator is needed, you are responsible to procure and to make usage of one. 5. Your team s entry should only include material (including music, video or images) that you own or that you have permission from the copyright/trademark owner to use. Note: Your team s entry may not include copyrighted materials (such as background music, images or video) unless you own or have permission to use the materials. Your team s entry will be disqualified if copyrighted material is included. In addition, by submitting your entry into this Contest you confirm that, to the best of your knowledge:

7 your entry is your own original work; and your entry only includes material (including music, video or images) that you own, or that you have permission from the copyright/trademark owner to use; and you have obtained permission from any recognizable person (parent/guardian, if a minor) that appears in your entry to submit your entry in this Contest and to use their personal data in the entry for the purposes of the Contest (if applicable); and your entry has not been selected as a prize winner in any other contest; and your entry complies with this terms of use. In the event of a conflict between the terms of use and these Official Rules, these Official Rules will govern. 5. HOW WILL MY ENTRY BE POTENTIALLY USED? Other than what is set forth below, we are not claiming any ownership rights to your entry. However, by submitting your entry, you: are granting us an irrevocable, worldwide right and license, for which you have received a sufficient remuneration, for the duration of the protection of the copyrights to: (i) reproduce, copy, modify or alter your entry with all known all later developed means; (ii) use, review, assess, test and otherwise analyse your entry and all its content in connection with this Contest; and (ii) feature your entry and all its content in connection with the promotion of this Contest in all media (now known or later developed); except where prohibited, hereby waive any and all so-called moral rights or any similar right that you may have or hereinafter acquire in the entry and all its content, and to the extent that you cannot, you hereby consent to us doing or omitting to do any act that would otherwise infringe such moral rights or any such similar rights; agree to sign any necessary documentation that may be required for us and our designees to make use of the rights you granted above; understand and acknowledge that that Microsoft and other entrants may have developed or commissioned materials similar or identical to your submission and you waive any claims you may have resulting from any similarities to your entry; understand that we cannot control the incoming information you will disclose to our representatives in the course of entering, or what our representatives will remember about your entry. You also understand that we will not restrict work assignments of representatives who have had access to your entry. By entering this Contest, you agree that use of information in our representatives

8 unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create liability for us under this agreement or copyright or trade secret law; understand that you will not receive any compensation or credit for use of your entry, other than what is described in these Official Rules. Please note that following the end of this Contest your entry may be posted on a website selected by us for viewing by visitors to that website. We are not responsible for any unauthorized use of your entry by visitors to this website. While we reserve these rights, we are not obligated to use your entry for any purpose, even if it has been selected as a winning entry. If you do not want to grant us these rights to your entry, please do not enter this Contest. 6. HOW DO YOU SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY? To submit your entry for the qualifying Rounds (the first four Rounds) you will need to follow the following steps: 1) Register your team in the Contest website ( respecting the registration time frame described in session 2 2) Submit your project synopsis, video and source code respecting the registration time frame described in session 2. Note: there is no need for registration at the final Round (number five) once only the winners of the previous Rounds will be allowed to participate. However, you will be able to update your project synopsis, video and source code respecting the registration time frame described in session 2. For every qualifying Round, we will only accept one entry per team per Round. You can participate of only one team throughout the Contest. You can also re-submit your project for another Round provided that you did not win with it in previous Rounds. For the final Round (number five) you can improve your project and update it through the Contest website in accordance with the timeframe described in the section 2.

9 We are not responsible for entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason. We will automatically disqualify: (1) Incomplete or illegible entries; and (2) Entries that we receive in excess of the entry limit described above. 7. HOW WILL ENTRIES BE JUDGED? A panel of qualified judges with knowledge and experience in software development (whose names will be available on request), which will include at least one independent judge, will review all eligible entries received and select the Round winners teams based upon the following criteria: Criteria Description Weighting Originality & Innovation Visual XAP Appeal Consumer XAP Appeal/Focus Unique Mobile- Oriented Features We're looking for cool XAP Applications that people have not yet seen, or XAP Applications that take an original twist off an already existing title. How well does the project adhere to the current Theme? We're looking for XAP Applications with visual appeal that will make people want to buy a Windows Phone. Windows Phone 7 is a consumer device. The consumer focus of XAP Applications is going to be a key element of the judging criteria. Using Windows Phone 7 (and/or mobile specific features) features like Location Awareness, Push Notifications, Multi-Touch, Sensors, etc. Teams will want to get creative here in terms of what they can do in an emulator. 20% 20% 30% 30% The decisions of these judges are final and binding. The judgment process will be done virtually. If we do not receive a sufficient number of entries meeting the entry requirements, we may, at our discretion based on the above criteria, select fewer winners. In the event of a tie between any eligible entries, the tie will be broken by additional judges who will the judge the tied entries based on the criteria listed above.

10 8. WHAT IS/ARE THE PRIZE(S)? The prizes for the winners of each Round will be: Round Prizes 1st. Place 2nd. Place 3rd. Place 1 Two notebooks valued USD each A five day trip to the Microsoft (Final) Corporation Headquarters in Redmond, USA. Trip includes round trip coach airfare from major airport closest to winners home, standard hotel accommodations, and select meals during staying In addition to the general prize conditions described above, all travel prizes are subject to the following conditions: Actual value of travel prize depends on date/time/destination, and difference between actual value and stated value will not be awarded in cash. Any expenses not explicitly listed herein, are the sole responsibility of the entrant. If you meet the eligibility criteria for the Contest, but you are a minor in your place of residence, then your parent/legal guardian will be required to execute a Liability and Publicity Release on your behalf. You are responsible for providing all required travel documents, including, but not limited to any required travel visas and passports required for international travel. One notebook valued USD 600 One notebook valued USD 600 One netbook valued USD 300 One netbook valued USD 300

11 If you live within 250 miles of the travel destination, we reserve the right to substitute alternate transportation for air travel. Event dates and location are subject to change at our sole discretion. Therefore, you must have flexible travel capabilities. Travel is subject to availability and must be completed on the dates we specify, or the prize will be forfeited and awarded to the next highest scoring Team/entrant. Some restrictions may apply. No cancellation of reservation or transfer of reservation to another date after reservation has been made. The odds of winning will depend on the number of eligible entries received and the level of skill of each entrant. If for any reason the advertised prize is unavailable, unless to do so would be prohibited by law, we reserve the right to substitute a prize(s) of equal or greater value, as permitted. We will only award one (1) prize per person. If you are selected as a potential winner of this Contest: (1) You may not exchange your prize for cash or any other merchandise or services. (2) You may not designate someone else as the winner. If you are unable or unwilling to accept your prize, we will award it to an alternate potential winner. (3) If you accept a prize, you will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize. (4) If you are a minor in your place of residence, we may award the prize to your parent/legal guardian on your behalf and your parent/legal guardian shall be designated as the winner.

12 9. HOW WILL YOU KNOW IF YOU RE A WINNER? If you are a potential winner, we will notify you by sending a message to the e- mail address on your entry within seven (7) days following the determination of winners. If the notification that we send is returned as undeliverable, or you are otherwise unreachable for any reason, we may award the prize to an alternate winner. If there is a dispute as to who is the potential winner, we will consider the potential winner to be the authorized account holder of the address used to enter the Contest. If you are a potential winner, we may require you to sign a declaration of eligibility, use, indemnity and liability/publicity release. If you are a potential winner and are a minor in your place of residence, and we require that your parent or legal guardian shall be designated as the winner pursuant to clause 8(4) above, we may require that they sign a declaration of eligibility, use, indemnity and liability/publicity release on your behalf. If you, (or your parent/legal guardian if applicable), do not sign and return these required forms within the time period listed on the winner notification message, we may disqualify you (or the designated parent/legal guardian) and select an alternate selected winner. 10. WHAT OTHER CONDITIONS ARE YOU ARE AGREEING TO BY ENTERING THIS CONTEST? By entering this Contest you agree: (1.) To abide by these Official Rules; (2.) To the extent allowable under applicable law, to release and hold harmless Microsoft,, their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss, damage, right, claim or action of any kind arising from or in connection with this Contest or any prize won save for residents of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, France and Germany with respect to claims resulting from death or personal injury arising from Microsoft s negligence,; (3.) That Microsoft s decisions will be final and binding on all matters related to this Contest; and (4.) That by accepting a prize, Microsoft may use your name and place of residence online and in print, or in any other media, in connection with this

13 Contest, without payment or compensation to you. The declaration of eligibility, use, indemnity and liability/publicity release provided to the potential winner (pursuant to clause 9 above) will make reference to obtaining his/her free consent to use his/her name and place of residence. In any case, the lack of such consent does not prevent the winner from receiving the prize. This Contest will be governed by the laws of the Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the Dubai, United Arab Emirates for any disputes arising out of this Contest. 11. WHAT IF SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS AND THE CONTEST CAN T RUN AS PLANNED? If someone cheats, or a virus, bug, catastrophic event, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled, (also referred to as force majeure) affects the fairness and / or integrity of this Contest, we reserve the right to cancel, change or suspend this Contest. This right is reserved whether the event is due to human or technical error. If a solution cannot be found to restore the integrity of the Contest, we reserve the right to select winners based on the criteria specified above from among all eligible entries received before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Contest. Computer hacking is unlawful. If you attempt to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Contest by hacking or by cheating or committing fraud in ANY way, we may seek damages from you to the fullest extent permitted by law. Further, we may ban you from participating in any of our future Contests, so please play fairly. 12. HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT WHO WON? We will post the names of confirmed winners online after April 20 th at This list will remain posted until June 1 st.

14 13. WHO IS SPONSORING THIS CONTEST? Microsoft Gulf FZ LLC is the sponsor of this Contest. Dubai Internet City, building # 8 P.O. Box Dubai, U.A.E. 14. PRIVACY Microsoft s Privacy Policy will apply to this Contest and to all information that we receive from your entry. Please read the Privacy Policy on the Contest entry page before accepting the Official Rules and submitting your entry. Please note that by accepting the Official Rules you are also accepting the terms of the Privacy Policy.