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Crowdsensor rules


Contents of this page

 

Introduction

In the Crowdsensor, people from all over the world are invited to come together to elicit a broad range of possible trends that could impact Singapore's plans to become a Smart Nation. This page describes the rules for the Phase 1 contest that will be run.

Please read these rules in full. You will be required to accept them when you enter a contest. The rules may be supplemented or revised by posting supplements or revisions to this page and by email notification to members of teams entered in the contest.

 

What are the goals of the contests?

The primary goals of the Crowdsensor contest are to:

The goals of this contest are not to advocate any particular position or point of view about about future trends and their impacts. Instead, we hope to provide a neutral forum where the best ideas and information can be shared.

 

Who can participate?

The contest is open to anyone in the world, regardless of age, race, nationality, or political viewpoint.

This contest, however, is void where prohibited by law. It is your responsibility to check with your local laws to make sure that this contest does not violate any applicable law or ordinance, and to make sure that you are eligible to participate.

If you are under 18 years old, you will need your parent or legal guardian to register on the Crowdsensor website and submit your trend for you.

You may submit ideas of trends that you have previously published or exhibited so long as they conform to the entry guidelines and the rules of this contest.

 

What does an entry in the contest contain?

Contest entries consist of trends that are created and submitted online in the Crowdsensor: http://crowdsensor.mit.edu

The focus of each trend category is described in the resource materials accompanying it. A complete contest submission must include answers to all the elements of the trend template for a contest.

 

How can I enter the contest?

To enter, go to the main page of each trend and click on the Create Trend button.

After filling out the fields of the trend template, you must save the trend. When you save the trend for the first time, a pop up will ask if you accept the Contest Rules and Terms of Use. To save the trend and enter the contest, click on the Accept button.

By saving and submitting a trend, you are agreeing to these Rules and the Terms of Use.

If you created your trend with other individuals, all of the co-authors must register with the Crowdsensor website. All co-authors must be listed as contributors to your trend, and all contributors must understand and agree to the Terms of Use and these Rules.

The individual who initiates a trend will be listed as the owner of that trend and will receive all official communications about the contest. Team members can decide among themselves who will receive any prizes that may be designated for their team should they win the contest. In cases where team members cannot agree among themselves, any prizes will be allocated to the Owner of the trend.

As set forth in the Terms of Use, all trends will be made available to third parties under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

If you do not list any contributors, or Co-Authors, on the trend, you are representing that you are the sole author. If you do list Co-Authors of the work, you represent that you are not violating any Co-Author's rights by entering the work, and that any Co-Authors have given you permission to submit the work.

 

Can I remove my entry?

Any trend submitted for a contest is considered an official entry and cannot be deleted from the website after the judging has begun. However during the trend creation phase, a trend can be deleted by the trend Owner by opening the trend, clicking the Admin tab and clicking Delete Trend. 

 

How do teams work?

Individuals may create trends by themselves, but participants are encouraged to form teams. For instance, a team might include different people with expertise in quantitative modeling, political analysis and writing.

Anyone who wants to join the team creating a specific trend can request to join that team. Then the current team members decide whether they want that person to join.

If they wish, a team can restrict the right to edit its trend to team members only. Alternatively, a team may also let anyone who is interested edit its trends. If anyone can edit, teams can get input from lots of people without the overhead of requiring everyone to join the team. Team members can easily undo any changes they don't like.

 

What is the contest's schedule?

The contest will have several stages.  All phases will conclude at 11:59:59 PM Eastern time on the specified end date.


Contest Deadline: Unless stated otherwise, the entry deadline is 11:59:59 PM Eastern time on June 30 2016.

 

How will trends be judged?

Judges will be asked to evaluate trends on the following criteria:

Winning trends will be especially strong in at least one of the first three dimensions. In addition, trends that are well-presented will be favored over those that aren't. Presentation quality includes how well written or compelling a trend is. In addition, instead of selecting a roster of finalists that are very similar, judges will try to select a group of trends that represent a diverse range of approaches.

As a tie-breaker, Judges may also use the popularity of a trend, as indicated by the number of people who support it. For example, in cases where a number of trends are similar, Judges will try to pick one or two trends to represent the whole group. In selecting these representative trends, Judges will take into account the quality of the trend presentations and the number of people who support the trends. To increase the diversity of ideas considered, Judges may accept slightly lower levels of feasibility for trends that include highly novel and interesting ideas.

In selecting trends to move on to the voting round, Judges will also be explicitly asked not to choose trends based on their own personal preferences. In other words, Judges are asked to use their expertise to judge the feasibility, novelty, and presentation quality of trends, but not based on their perspective on what is desirable. For example, a Judge should not reject a trend that is technically, economically, and politically likely, just because the Judge feels that the trend would lead to socially undesirable consequences.

 

What are the prizes?

Three to five winning trends will be named, which will each be rewarded $500-1000 Singapore Dollars. Additional prize amounts and other awards may be announced. In rare cases, Judges may not award any winners or progress any trends to the finalist round.

Selected winners may also have an opportunity to present their ideas to the public at the coming International Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Symposium (IRAHSS) 2017.

 

How will the results of the contest have an impact?

Winning trends may have an impact on activities of the Singapore Smart Nation Programme Office.

 

Voting Rules

Voting starting dates will be announced near the end of the judging phase.

Anyone (age 18+) can vote by registering on the Crowdsensor website and clicking "Vote for trend" on the trend page. As always, registration is free. (If you are under 18 years old, you will need your parent or legal guardian to register on the Crowdsensor website and submit your vote for you.)

You can vote for one (1) trend, and can change your vote as many times as you wish before the voting period ends.

The number of people "supporting" a trend will not automatically be added to votes. People who have previously "supported" a trend will also need to select "Vote for trend" in order have their choice counted.

To prevent abuse, we require a valid email address in order to count your vote. Any votes made by accounts with invalid email addresses will be removed.

If the Crowdsensor staff notices evidence of cheating (e.g. use of bots, third party voting services or payment for votes), they have the discretion to disqualify the entrant and cancel all votes received. If necessary, the Crowdsensor will determine the winning trend in that contest based on non-suspect votes.