ThinkQuest Internet Challenge 2009 Rules

Competition Schedule
Teams
Age Divisions
Entry Requirements
Judging
Awards and Prizes
ThinkQuest Library
Program Tools
General Conditions

By participating in the ThinkQuest New York City Internet Challenge Competition (the “Competition”) a competition managed by ThinkQuest New York City, each Team (as defined below) member accepts the conditions stated in these Rules, agrees to be bound by the decisions of the Judges (as defined below) and warrants that he/she is eligible to participate in the Competition.

Competition Schedule

The Competition schedule is as follows:

Team Enrollment opens: November 1, 2008
Entry Submission Deadline:  April 29, 2009
Winners Announced: June 19, 2009

ThinkQuest New York City may extend any Competition deadline upon three days prior written notice to the Coaches (as defined below) and will post any changes to those deadlines on the ThinkQuest New York City Competition website at nyc.thinkquest.org.

Team Composition:

• A Team must be comprised of three to six student members and one Coach (each, a “Team”).

• A Team may also, at its option, include one Assistant Coach (as defined below).

• A Team may have no more than one student member who has been on a winning ThinkQuest Local Competition team in the past.
• Teams may include students and coaches from a single classroom or from many different classrooms, or communities within the same country.
• If any information submitted about any Team member is found to be an intentional misrepresentation, the entire Team will be disqualified.

Coach Requirements:

Coaches may:

• provide guidance to their Team(s);
• help students form Teams;
• help students locate resources (human, technical, and information);
• help students upload Website files;
• help students project manage creation of the Website.

Coaches may NOT:

• work directly on any portion of the Website; and
• work on the Website Description, Collaboration and Diversity sections of the Site Profile; and
• judge Websites submitted in their team’s Age Division, including their team’s Website.

The Coach must:

• be employed by and working in a teaching or resource capacity (e.g., teacher, librarian, technology coordinator, etc.) at a school.
• be at least age 21, OR the age of legal majority in his/her country/state of residence, whichever is older, on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline;
• enroll his/her Team in the Competition by following the enrollment instructions found at nyc.thinkquest.org.
• obtain written parental consent for each student on the team;
• provide and maintain an active email address during coach enrollment and throughout the Competition, so that he/she may act as the point of contact for the Team(s); and complete all documentation required to accept any applicable prize as determined necessary by ThinkQuest New York City

The “Assistant Coach”, if any, must:

• Be at least 18, OR the age of legal majority in his/her country/state of residence whichever is older, on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline.

Student Requirements: Student Team members are responsible for the design and development of their Website including all of its content as well as the content of the Website Description, Collaboration and Diversity sections of the Site Profile.

Each student must:

• Be at least age 9 and no older than age 19 on the day of the Entry Submission Deadline;

• Be a member of only one Team; and
• Make significant contributions to the success of the Team and be a full participant in the development of the Website.

Age Divisions

Teams must compete in one of three age divisions:

• Age 12 and under
• Age 15 and under
• Age 19 and under

Teams are permitted to include student members of different ages.  The age of the oldest student on the Team as of the Entry Submission Deadline will determine the age division in which the Team competes.

Entry Requirements

All Entries that do not adhere to the following requirements are subject to disqualification:
1.) Submitting an Entry: Teams that do not submit a complete entry by the Entry Submission Deadline will be disqualified. A completed entry (”Entry” or “Entries”) consists of the following THREE items:

• the collection of website files the Team has produced and successfully uploaded to the ThinkQuest Local Competition server (the “Website”);

• a complete Site Profile, an online form providing requested information about the Team and its Website (“Site Profile”);
• a Coach Checklist, included in the Site Profile, that must be completed by the  Coach.

In the event that one or more Teams miss the Entry Submission Deadline due solely to a confirmed technical failure or malfunction of the Local Competition systems (as determined by ThinkQuest New York City in its sole discretion), and that Team’s Coach contacts their ThinkQuest Local Competition support manager within 2 days of the Entry Submission Deadline, then ThinkQuest New York City  may, but is not obligated to, extend such deadline in its sole discretion, upon notice to the Coach.

2.) All website content must be uploaded to the ThinkQuest Local Competition server. No portion of the Website content can be hosted on an external server. This includes multimedia files on services including, but not limited to, videos (e.g. YouTube), game building servers (e.g. Quia), guestbooks, blogs, and/or other hosting services.

3.) Websites may not contain any objectionable material. “Objectionable” means any content in any medium or format that (as determined by ThinkQuest New York City)

• is inappropriate, offensive, libelous or defamatory, pornographic, sexually explicit, or unlawful or that encourages any of the foregoing;
• a reasonable person would consider harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, profane, obscene, excessively violent, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
• infringes or violates any person’s (living or deceased) privacy, publicity or other property rights;
• promotes software or services that deliver unsolicited email, including bulk e-mail, surveys, contests, “junk mail,” “spam,” or chain letters;
• disrupts or interferes with the Competition or any services, system resources, accounts, servers or networks connected to or accessible through the Competition, including use of viruses, worms, corrupt files, or Trojan horses; or
• is subject to any restriction upon transmission under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as information pertaining to minors where no parental consent has been obtained).

4.) Websites may not contain any commercial content. Commercial content is content that promotes the sale of a product or service either directly via the Website or via hyperlinks to external sites. Commercial content includes but is not limited to logos, brand names, slogans, text, images, videos, or any type of multimedia file(s).

5.) Websites (or content from websites) previously submitted in ThinkQuest Local Competitions are ineligible for submission.

6.) Copyrighted Materials: By submitting an Entry, Team members represent that they have the unrestricted right to submit the content and it does not infringe upon any third party’s proprietary or other rights.  Any content, including, but not limited to, text, images and videos, that is not the original creation of the Team must be completely and accurately cited, and if permission is necessary to use such content, the Team shall disclose how such permission was obtained. Teams may either cite sources directly on each page or use a summary “Citations” page to adequately disclose the sources and/or permissions to include content.

While Team members are encouraged to seek guidance from coaches, parents, friends, published sources and other collaborators via the internet, Team members must do their own work and must not permit any person (other than student members of the Team) to perform such work and must not copy the materials (words, images, data, audio and video files, and other media) of others, except as permitted below:

Websites may include material that was created by another person before January 1, 1978 so long as an accurate citation is provided within the Website; and Websites may include material that was created by another person on or after January 1, 1978 so long as written permission to quote or use such material is obtained as required by the creator or owner of such intellection property AND an accurate citation is provided within the Website noting permission was granted. Team must also be able to provide a copy of such permission to ThinkQuest New York City if requested.

7.) Plagiarism: For purposes of these Rules, “plagiarism” means:

• any copying of another person’s work that results in the Entry not being substantially the original work of the Team, regardless of whether the copied work is cited;
• copying a significant amount (as determined by ThinkQuest New York City) of words or ideas from someone else without giving credit or attributing those words or ideas as one’s own;
• if quoting content from a source, failing to put that quote within quotation marks;
• use of website templates without giving credit to the original creator/owner of the template; and/or
• any behavior that ThinkQuest New York City determines to be plagiarism in its sole discretion.

Any plagiarism or copyright violation, as defined above, can result in an Entry’s disqualification.

All decisions with regards to disqualification for plagiarism are at the discretion of ThinkQuest New York City and are not subject to review.

8.) Categories: Entries must be submitted in one of twelve categories. To view a list of the categories and examples of topics in each category, please visit http://thinkquest.org/competition/categories.shtml.

9.) Server Usage: Each Team is allotted a maximum of 100 mb of ThinkQuest Local Competition server space for its Website. Teams whose Websites exceed the 100 mb at the time of the Entry Submission Deadline will be disqualified and will be notified of such disqualification.

A Team will be disqualified if any member gains unauthorized access to, or misuses, the ThinkQuest Local Competition website or server by gaining access to areas that the Team does not have the explicit right to use or for using the server for purposes not related to the development and deployment of Entries for the Competition.

10.) Language: File and directory names (required in basic ASCII format) used when uploading content to the ThinkQuest Local Competition server must be in English. The Website, Site Profile and communications submitted to ThinkQuest New York City must be submitted in English.

11.) Supported Technologies: Websites must function properly when viewed using different platforms, Internet browsers, and connection speeds or may be subject to disqualification.

• Teams must test their Websites to make sure they are functional on a PC and Mac.
• Websites must also be functional when viewed using Internet Explorer version 7 and Mozilla version 2.
• It is recommended that teams also test on other browsers such as Safari 3.1.

Websites must be built to run within a browser based on the following guidelines:

• browser-based technologies such as Flash, Java script, dhtml, style sheets, and applets are supported;
• server-based technologies such as PHP, Perl, SSI, Java, CGI, and FrontPage extensions* will not operate on the ThinkQuest Local Competition servers. Use of these technologies is grounds for disqualification.

*FrontPage may be used to design and build a Team’s Website, but FrontPage’s server-side extensions and publishing utilities are not supported.

12.) Protecting Student Personal Information:
For the protection of student Team members, the Website and Site Profile content may NOT contain any of the following:

• student last names;
• student email addresses or personal contact information (generic Team or coach email addresses are acceptable); and
• guestbooks, discussion boards, forums, chat areas, blogs (including links to these types of forums hosted on external websites).

13.) Editing Website Entries: ThinkQuest New York City may, in its sole discretion:

• remove student personal information, guestbooks, forums, chat areas, blogs, etc. from Entries;
• remove images, links, or other content deemed in violation of these Rules;
• remove any other portion of the Entry deemed necessary.

If an Entry that requires amendments cannot be edited, the Entry will not be posted in the Library and may be disqualified.

14.) Digital photo essays, stories and comic books: All photographs and artwork used for photo essays, digital stories and digital comic books must be the original work of student team members.

Judging

An independent panel of judges (”Judges”) will evaluate the Website and Site Profile, in accordance with the Evaluation Criteria, which is incorporated in and made a part of these Official Rules.

Winners of the Competition will be announced on nyc.thinkquest.org on or about the Winners Announcement date. Judges’ scores will not be posted or publicized.

All decisions of ThinkQuest New York City in cooperation with the Judges, shall, in all respects, be final, binding, and not be subject to review.

Awards & Prizes

Age Division Awards:

19 and Under	15 and Under	12 and Under
Division 3 First, second, third place prizes	Division 2 First, second, third place prizes	Division 1 First, second, third place prizes

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Ties and Multiple Awards:
In the event of a tie, the teams who have tied, their coaches and schools will all be awarded the appropriate prize package.

Prizes:
Prizes are subject to change at the sole discretion of ThinkQuest New York City.

• There will be a FIRST PLACE award presented in each Division. First place award winning team members will each be presented with a notebook computer. Their coaches will receive a certificate of purchase for $1000 and their school will receive a certificate of purchase for $1000. (Certificates will be provided by a local vendor of computer hardware and software).

There will be a SECOND PLACE award presented in each Division. Second place award winning team members will each be presented with a digital camera. Their coaches will receive a certificate of purchase for $500 and their school will receive a certificate of purchase for $500. (Certificates will be provided by a local vendor of computer hardware and software).
There will be a THIRD PLACE award presented in each Division. Third place award winning team members will each be presented with a $250 certificate of purchase. Their coaches will receive a certificate of purchase for $250 and their school will receive a certificate of purchase for $250. (Certificates will be provided by a local vendor of computer hardware and software).
SPECIAL AWARDS
Please visit www.tqnyc.org to see any special awards for the 2008-2009 school year.
Notification and Verification of Winners: Coaches of winning Teams will be notified via email. In order to accept the Prize, coaches must submit signed letter of approval of their principal and a signed statement that the work on the website has been done by students.

ThinkQuest Library

Entries may be displayed in the ThinkQuest Library following the Winner’s Announcement, at the sole discretion of ThinkQuest New York City

• ThinkQuest New York CIty has sole discretion in determining whether or not to add an Entry to the Library, and how long to display such Entry.
• Entries that contain Personally Identifiable Information that cannot be removed by [ThinkQuest New York City (i.e. files that cannot be edited, such as flash files, CGI script etc.) will not be displayed in the Library.
• Each Website that is displayed in the Library will incorporate the ThinkQuest Banner.  Code associated with the ThinkQuest Banner will be preloaded in each team’s web directory and should be tested prior to the Entry Submission Deadline.

The ThinkQuest Local Competition School Agreement (“Agreement”) describes certain rights and licenses granted to ThinkQuest New York City to use the Entries in the Library. Please review the Agreement for a complete description of these rights. By submitting an Entry, each Team member agrees that they have, or will grant their school the rights necessary for their school to grant ThinkQuest New York City the rights to use the Entry, in accordance with the Agreement.

Program Tools

ThinkQuest New York City may make available certain software tools or other materials (“Program Tools”) for use by Teams participating in the Competition. Coaches are responsible for:

• Insuring that Program Tools (if any) are used by Teams in accordance with these Rules; and
• Any specific terms accompanying the Program Tools, including any applicable Software License Terms or Terms of Use for such Program Tools (“Terms”); and
• Insuring removal of Program Tools from computer systems upon completion of the Competition and/or termination of a Team’s participation in the Competition.

Unless otherwise specified in writing by ThinkQuest New York City or its suppliers, Program Tools may be used only for activities directly related to the Team’s participation in the Competition.  A team will be disqualified if any Team member modifies or reverse-engineers any software, or uses any software in a manner inconsistent with the Terms.

General Conditions

This offer is void where prohibited or restricted by law and is subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

ThinkQuest New York City and Judges are not responsible for (a) late, lost, stolen, damaged, garbled, incomplete, incorrect or misdirected Entries, (b) errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, or delays in operations or transmission of information, in each case whether arising by way of technical or other failures or malfunctions of computer hardware, software, communications devices, or transmission lines, or (c) data corruption, theft, destruction, unauthorized access to or alteration of Entry materials, loss or otherwise.

[ThinkQuest New York City and Judges are not responsible for electronic communications or emails which are undeliverable as a result of any form of active or passive filtering of any kind, or insufficient space in any email account to receive email messages.

ThinkQuest New York City reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any Team member from this Competition or any other promotion conducted now or in the future by ThinkQuest New York City or any of its affiliates if his or her fraud or misconduct affects the integrity of the Competition. A Team may be disqualified: if there is a violation of any portion of the Rules or ThinkQuest Local Competition School Agreement; if any member of the Team is found to be acting in an inappropriate, disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner or with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass any other person; and/or if there is any attempt by any member of the Team to deliberately damage any Website or undermine the legitimate operation of the Competition.

ThinkQuest New York City disclaims any liability for damage to any computer system resulting from participation in, or accessing or downloading information in connection with, the Competition, including but not limited to the installation or use of any third party software.

ThinkQuest New York City reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, cancel, terminate or suspend this Competition should any virus, bug, technical failures, unauthorized human intervention or other causes beyond ThinkQuest New York City’s control, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the Competition. In any such event, a notice will be posted on the ThinkQuest Local Competition website at NYC.ThinkQuest.org and the winners will be selected from among all eligible Entries received prior to such time.

Employees of ThinkQuest New York City and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the Competition.

These Rules, and the ThinkQuest Local Competition School Agreement, and Evaluation Criteria, incorporated herein, constitute the entire agreement and understanding between the parties regarding the Competition, and supersede and merge all prior discussions and agreements between them relating thereto.

Last Updated: October 28, 2008