Welcome to the Social Desktop Contest!

What is it?

Last year the vision of the Social Desktop was born. The idea is to bring the power of online communities and group collaboration to desktop applications. One of the strongest assets of the free software community is our worldwide community of developers and users who believe in free software and who work hard to bring our software and solutions to the mainstream.
openDesktop.org wants to help to make this vision reality. We decided to launch a contest for applications, services and programs using it.
Here is the challenge: create and submit applications, widgets, plasmoids or web services etc. as part of the contest and win one of our wonderful prizes.

What can you win?

The authors of the best applications will receive a prize.
The prices are:

1. Netbook:
Dell Inspiron Mini 10v with Ubuntu
2. External HDD:
The owner of the second highest voted entry receive a external hard drive with 1TB (depends on what is available when the contest is over)
3. Amazon.com Gift Coupon:
You have free choice and can buy a Linux fan product or something else on amazon.com with a value of $50.00
4. Amazon.com Gift Coupon:
You have free choice and can buy a Linux fan product or something else on amazon.com with a value of $30.00

And last but not least: a good image in the community and the good feeling that you've supported the open source community.
Afterwards we will contact you for your person dates so that we can send you your prize. We'll buy them from amazon.com so that the prizes can be send nearly all around the world.

When will the contest start?

The contest will start on 17th June 2009.

How long will the contest run?

It will run till 25th August 2009. The jury will announce the winners at 1st September 2009. The prizes will be sent to winners afterwards (purchased at amazon.com).

Are there any conditions concerning the participation?

The goal of the Social Desktop Contest is to foster community development and innovations around the OCS API or GHNS. Prize winners will be selected by the community via the voting system and by the jury. Entrants are encouraged to submit entries that encourage community participation
Everyone can participate, teams are allowed (but than they have to share their prize, too)
Every contribution must be licenced under an open source licence
Every contribution must be build around the OCS API or GHNS. Otherwise the entry won't get accepted
Every contest contribution has to be uploaded to openDesktop.org (upload category: Social Desktop Contest) so that the community can vote for the best content.

Do you have any ideas or examples?

Sure! Here's a short list with only a few propositions. Feel free to propose or to add more ideas!

More plasmoids using the Open Collaboration Services API

Knowledgebase plasmoid: a plasmoid where users can directly query an online knowledge base system. For example a searchline, most popular questions from today and alltime. And a direct link to the person who asked the question and provided the answer. You can ask how you configure some specific option in KDE for example. You will get an answer or get the option to post this as an open question into the system.
Activity plasmoid: For example. - A friend of mine posted a new blog entry - A friend of mine uploaded a new application or wallpaper on KDE-Look.org - A friend of mine is going to the Linux User Group meeting tomorrow. - There is an update for an application I am fan of - A friend of mine committed a new feature in the KDE SVN - Someone was on my profile page and offered me a KDE related job - A friend of mine is now a fan of "Amarok"
Microblogging screenlet for GNOME
More Get Hot New Stuff (GHNS) integration in KDE
Integration of GHNS in GNOME/XFCE/LXDE
Enable mobile integration e.g. an app or theme downloader for Android
Locate and find friends near you by implementing an Android friend finder
Integrate the OCS API in your website or webservice (e.g. as forum.kde.org is going to do)
Create an OpenOffice.org add-on that fetches templates from opentemplate.org
Up/Download buttons in save dialogs from several apps (such as Blender, Scribus, Inkscape...)
A Google Gadget which can fetch data (e.g. Wallpapers) from OCS compatible sites
Your own creative idea

How do you submit your stuff?

25th August 2009

openDesktop.org

Who is part of the jury?

Aaron Seigo, currently the "President of KDE e.V." for the KDE project
Luis Villa, long time member of the Board of Directors from the GNOME foundation for the GNOME project
Alexandro Colorado, OpenOffice.org contributor and ES Community Lead
Frank Karlitschek, as the main creator of the Social Desktop and maintainer of openDesktop.org

How do you evaluate the winners?

Phase one
Everybody can vote for his/her favourite application on openDesktop.org till 25th August 2009. The score at 0:00 GMT well be the community part of the contest vote.
Phase two
The jury will vote on the applications. It's important to note that the community and the jury members are equal which means that they both have the same power and number of votes. Each jury member is equal in terms of voting. After having the community votes the jury members can give their votes to their prefered contribution. The application with the most votes is the winner, then second one and so one.
Phase three

API documentation

Questions? Comments?

Contest Group on openDesktop.org

Contact

www.hive01.com

Frank Karlitschek frank@openDesktop.org footer