OpenJDK Community Innovators' Challenge FAQ

What is the OpenJDK Community Innovators' Challenge (the "OCIC")?

It is an award program designed to encourage developers to contribute new ideas, drive new projects, and collaborate to further the goals of the OpenJDK Community and of open source Java: to foster more adoption, accelerate innovation, and create new opportunities for the OpenJDK code base and for Java SE.

The OpenJDK Community Innovators' Challenge is part of Sun's Community Innovation Awards program, a multi-year initiative to help build community and to recognize and reward the efforts of developers innovating on Sun's open source project code bases. This initiative is starting in 2008 with a $1 million award program of which the OpenJDK Community Innovators' Challenge is a part.

How much is being awarded?

Across the six Sun-sponsored projects participating in the Innovation Awards in 2008, a total of $1 million will be awarded. The OCIC will award up to $175,000 in August, 2008. This prize will be awarded to completed projects and may be divided up to 7 ways depending on how many proposals are accepted as finalists, and how many finalist projects are completed. Prizes will be awarded according to a prize table in the Official Rules.

How will the OCIC program work?

The OCIC opens on January 29, 2008 with a proposal phase, in which entrants may submit ideas for projects to a public mailing list. These proposals are up to 3000 words long and are limited only by the entrants' imaginations and ability to implement their proposal themselves, largely without direct involvement or resources from Sun. Such proposals might embody for example, an idea for a new Java API or tool for the JDK, porting the OpenJDK code base to new hardware or a new operating system, or helping to further the educational use of the code base through curricula and courseware.

The proposal phase ends on March 2, 2008. A panel of expert judges will then select up to 7 of the best proposals to advance to the project phase. This phase will begin with the announcement of the judges' selections on March 17, 2008. Beginning on March 18, and running until August 4, 2008, entrants will build implementations of their proposals with all work done using transparent development methods and under the auspices of the OpenJDK Community.

At the conclusion of the project phase, the panel of judges will rank the completed projects by the degree of successful completion, the technical merit of the implementation, and the value of the completed project to the community. Prizes will be awarded to all completed projects according to a prize table, with $175,000 in cash prizes available to be awarded on or about August 18, 2008.

For more information please see the Official Rules.

Who is eligible?

Please check the Official Rules for full requirements. You must be of legal age and be a resident of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, or the fifty United States or the District of Columbia in order to enter. Residents of Puerto Rico and Quebec, employees of Sun and Sun's application development, advertising and marketing partners, and their families, aren't eligible.

Why are entrants from only certain countries eligible?

Laws and regulations governing contests vary from country to country and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Given these differences, we regret that it isn't always possible to include all jurisdictions in contests of this nature. This is not to say we don't appreciate contributions and participation from developers in non-eligible countries! We are very grateful for all contributions. Regrettably, we can not include every country in the OCIC, for reasons outside of our control. If you are a not eligible to participate because of your country of residence but want to help out, please consider offering constructive feedback to proposals and projects discussed on the open mailing list, or participating in judging or administrating the program. There are many ways to participate, and everyone can contribute to making the OpenJDK Community even more interesting and rewarding for all.

Can teams of developers enter as a group?

Absolutely! A team of up to 10 individuals may enter. All team members must individually be eligible to enter, and the team must appoint a team leader to act as the liason with Sun for administrative purposes. Note that organizations may not enter, but several individuals all a part of an organization may form a team and enter.

How do I enter?

We suggest you first read the Official Rules carefully in order to understand the requirements. All entries will be accepted on a public mailing list challenge-discuss (at) openjdk.java.net. Proposals are up to 3000 words and limited only by your imagination and abilities, and by the requirement that your proposal not require any significant work on Sun's part in order to finish.

All entries must be submitted under the terms of the Sun Contributor Agreement (SCA). If you want to enter and haven't yet signed the SCA, please see here and follow the instructions to sign the SCA prior to entering the OCIC.

What kinds of proposals are you looking for?

Rather than limit how the community looks at the OCIC, we would rather leave this up to you! In general, proposals that solve real world problems, including new APIs or implementations or tools, that help adoption by porting the OpenJDK code base to new hardware or operating systems, or that use the OpenJDK code to help teach or do research would all be excellent and in the spirit of the program.

What are the criteria for judging?

For proposals to advance to the project stage, the judges will consider the qualifications of the entrants, the feasibility of the project plan in the proposal, usefulness to developers, and impact to the OpenJDK Community as a whole. Projects will be judged at the end of the contest based on 50% the degree to which the project implements the proposal as written, 30% technical merit, and 20% value to others working on the OpenJDK project.

Who are the judges?

The judges have not yet been selected. We anticipate that we will have a slate of five judges well before the proposal stage concludes, and we will be working with the community to get their feedback and perspective on selecting judges.

How do I contact you with more questions?

The best way to get questions answered is to submit them to the mailing list for the OCIC: challenge-discuss (at) openjdk.java.net. Join this mailing list by visiting the OpenJDK mailing list administration page. You can manage your mailing list subscriptions from that page, including the one for the OCIC. We will be monitoring this mailing list and answering questions there, as they come up. The best questions and answers will be folded into this FAQ as well, to benefit everyone.