Apps4Finland 2012 in English

Apps4Finland is a competition where you can compete with ideas and functional web applications, widgets, mashups, mobile apps and other digital utilities that, make use of  public data.

Apps4Finland 2012 categories, prizes and rules

Categories

There are five categories in the competition:

• Idea Category – Participate by sharing your ideas for how to use open data. You will help developers in finding interesting application and visualizing opportunities.
• Application Category –  Participate by creating an application which uses open data.
• Visualisation Category – Participate by visualizing open data or present a datajournalism project.
• Data Category looks for competition entries which have made data more accessible. The entries can include new data sets or improvements to existing ones.
• Data Tutorial – Participate by creating a tutorial for using open data with some source code.

Important dates

Submission period: from Aug 1, 2012 2.00 PM to Oct 28, 2012 3.00 PM
Judging period: from Oct 29, 2012 9.00 AM to Nov 30, 2012 5.00 PM
List of finalists released: Nov 23, 2012
Public voting period: from Oct 1, 2012 2.00 PM to Nov 30, 2012 5.00 PM
Winners Announcement: Dec 4, 2012 in Helsinki

Prizes

In total, there are 20,000 euro worth of prizes. If we get more sponsors, there might be additional prizes.

In addition to the regular categories, there are some special prizes:

• Maps4Finland A special prize of 1,000 € is granted to a geo information application or service. The award is given by National Land Survey of Finland.
• Stats4Finland A special prize of 1,000 € is granted to an application related to statistical data. The award is given by Statistics Finland.
• NewBiz4Finland A special  prize of 1,000 € is awarded for an innovative solutions which creates new business. The award is given by Logica.

Moreover, competitors of the Idea and Data Category have the chance to win 500 euros if they have contributed with their idea or data source to a winning entry in the Application Category.

Voting of entries can be done until November 30th 2012 on the Apps4Finland website. A 200 euro award will be granted to those with the most public votes.

Rules

• The competition is open for everybody.
• One entry can participate Apps4Finland competition only once. A work that is significantly updated and revised from the earlier entry can be regarded as new entry allowing it to enter subsequent competitions.  In this case, the enrollment must clearly show the differences to the previous work.
• Competition entries that have already entered other competitions are still accepted.
• One author(s) can enter several works to the competition.
• All rights to the competition entry remain the property of the creator.
• Entries should use at least one open and free data source, which is Finnish or otherwise meaningful to the Finnish society or people living or visiting in Finland.
• The web page Data catalog  contains a list of suitable data sources. If some essential data is missing from the list, please contact competition the coordinator.
• We may define additional details to the rules of the competition, so please keep checking the rules every now and then.

The publication of the entries

• Applications which have to be installed on mobile devices must be available through respective application stores at latest on the last submission day.
• If the application is not free of charge, the competitors must provide the judges with a sufficient amount of free evaluation licenses or reimburse the cost of the evaluation licenses. The competitor and the competition organizer will agree on the procedure case-by-case basis.
• Entries entering the Visualization Category and those entering the Application Category must be attached with a presentation illustrating the entry. It can be either a video or a slideshow (for example PowerPoint, PDF or Google Docs). At least one of the presentations in those entries in the Application Category that cannot be used on a common web browser must be in a video format featuring the use of the application. These types of applications include for example operating system-specific downloadable mobile and desktop applications. It is also recommended to attach a presentation in a video format to the other entries in the Application and the Visualization Categories. Entries can be attached with more than one presentation.

• Entries must be free for everybody to use and download during the competition and at least two months after the competition ends.

Additional prize for Idea or Opening of Data Categories

• Competitors of Idea or Opening of Data Categories are eligible for an additional prize of 500 euros on the following conditions:

• If it is possible to verify that the basic idea of the winning entry in Application category originates from an entry in Idea or Data Categories, the idea will be acknowledged. The competitor of the Application Category must confirm this.
• In unclear cases, the jury will decide whether the competitor participating in Idea or Data categories is eligible for the prize.
• If a competitor of the Idea Category participates in both the Application and Idea Category with the same original idea, this prize will not be granted.
• If a competitor of the Idea Category submits an entry in the Application Category which has the same original idea, the entry for the Idea Category will be rejected and only the entry for the Application Category will be accepted.