Terms and Conditions

FTW! Coding Competition

  1. To be eligible to participate in the Competition, you must be a resident of Canada and of the age of majority in your province of residence and must be either a student at an accredited Canadian educational institution or a web developer that is employed with a registered business in Canada. Any employee of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Canada Inc (“Microsoft”), advertising agencies, prize suppliers or members of their respective immediate families of such employees or anyone with whom such employees are domiciled are ineligible to participate in the Competition.
  2. The Competition begins on February 11th and ends on May 17th, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. EST.
  3. To enter the Competition you must create and submit a web application that meets at least 1 of the following criteria:
    1. Written in PHP and deployed on Microsoft® Windows® utilizing IIS as the Web Server OR Windows® Azure® Platform.
    2. Written in any language but deployed on Windows® Azure® Platform
    3. Written in any language but utilizes Open Government Data and is deployed on Microsoft® Windows® utilizing IIS OR Windows® Azure® Platform
  4. All entries must be submitted electronically no later than May 17th, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. EST via the “FTW! Coding Competition” online entry form at www.webnotwar.ca. The entry form must be completed in its entirety and must include a valid URL address where the web application can be located. You can enter either as a student representing yourself, a student representing a team of students, as an individual developer, or as a developer representing an organization. If representing an organization, you must have management approval to enter the Competition. Multiple entries per individual or organizations can be submitted. Only one web application represented by a single URL address may be submitted in a single entry.
  5. The entry form must be completed in English or French. The web application could have been developed and implemented in any language; however, the entry form (answers to all questions) must be in English or French.
  6. The entrant must be the rightful owner of the application and/or services solution or have a legal right to develop or add software code to an application if the entry leverages existing code under an appropriate license.
  7. A panel of judges made up of Microsoft employees and an industry representative will evaluate the submissions in a review process commencing on or after May 17th, 2010. Criteria for review will be based on Creativity, Innovativeness, and Usefulness. Applications that best utilize 1 or more of the following technologies are eligible for the bonus prizes: 1) Best Application written in PHP 2) Best Windows® Azure® application 3) Best Open Government Application 4) Best application that uses Microsoft SQL Server.
  8. 3 Finalists will be announced on May 20th, 2010 and will be contacted by Microsoft by e-mail and telephone to arrange for a final presentation at “Make Web Not War 2010 Edition” in Montreal, Quebec on May 27th, 2010. If no one is available after three (3) contact attempts on separate days or is unable to commit to participating in the presentation (in person or in form of a video), the next runner-up will be notified and given an opportunity to be a finalist.
  9. If a finalist cannot make the presentation at “Make Web Not War 2010 Edition”, Microsoft will ask for a link to a 15 minute video presentation for a presentation at the special event and to be posted on MSN Video . Microsoft will pay up to $1000 for finalist travel expenses (flight, hotel accommodation, taxi) to Montreal, Quebec.
  10. Finalists must accept and sign Microsoft’s standard release form to qualify.
  11. One (1) winning entry will be selected for a Grand Prize that consists of [Dell® Precision Workstation 15" Notebook, Notebook Stand and Port Replicator, 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor, Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, Ferguson Hill® Sound System] (Total MSRP of $5000). They will also receive a free 1 year MSDN subscription depending on eligibility.
  12. One (1) 2nd place Runner up entry will be selected for prizes that consist of [Dell® Precision Workstation 14" Notebook, Ferguson Hill® Sound System] (Total Value of $3000). They will also receive a free 1 year MSDN subscription depending on eligibility.
  13. One (1) 3rd place Runner up entry will be selected for prizes that consist of [Dell® Adamo XPS 13" Notebook] (Value of $1000). They will also receive a free 1 year MSDN subscription depending on eligibility.
  14. Eligibility for the bonus prize of [Dell® Vostro 13 Notebook and Dell M109S Projector] (Value of $1000) will be based on the contestant who has the best Windows Azure based application.
  15. Eligibility for the bonus prize of [Dell® Studio One 19"] (Value of $1000) will be based on the contestant who has the best PHP based application.
  16. Eligibility for the bonus prize of [Dell® Hybrid Ultra-Compact Desktop] (Value of $1000) will be based on the contestant who is able to demonstrate creative integration of “Open Data” distributed by a government body in their web application.
  17. Eligibility for the bonus prize of [TV Sharp® 32" LCD TV Bundle - W/Blueray Disc Player] (Value of $1000) will be based on the contestant who has the best application and utilizes Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Server Express or Azure SQL Services database for their application.
  18. Eligibility for the bonus prize of [Xbox 360 + 6 games, 22" LCD TV and Logitech x-540 Sound Speaker System] (Value of $1000) will be based on the contestant who is identified as a student that has the best application
  19. The winners of the Competition must agree to provide any required additional materials for editorial or promotional purposes, including but not limited to screen captures, photographs of the development team, company logo and video.
  20. Participation in the Competition shall be construed as an acceptance of the Terms and Conditions stipulated herein. Any breach or default by a Participant of any of the Terms and Conditions herein shall result in disqualification without notice.
  21. Microsoft reserves the right to contact third parties for validation of submissions to “The FTW! Coding Competition”.
  22. Microsoft reserves the right to change the rules and regulations of the Competition without notice.
  23. The Microsoft officials engaged in the organization and management of the Competition, including its directors, officers, partners, employees, consultants and agents are under no obligation to render any advice or service to Participant(s) in respect of the Competition.
  24. All warranties and conditions of any kind whatsoever, whether express or implied, are hereby expressly disclaimed by Microsoft including, but not limited to, meeting of the Participant(s) requirements or aspirations, timeliness, security, the results or reliability of any Competition, or the delivery, quality, or non-infringement in respect of any services, benefits or awards acquired or obtained through the Competition or any transactions effected through the Competition;
  25. Any performance tuning, troubleshooting or benchmarking of the application will not be undertaken by Microsoft.
  26. No advice or information whether by representations, oral, written or pictorial derived from the website or through the Competition shall be construed to mean the giving of any warranty or condition of any kind by Microsoft.
  27. Participation or selection in the Competition or selection as the Finalist shall not be construed as an offer of employment with Microsoft.
  28. Nothing in the Competition shall affect any intellectual property rights of Microsoft in any product or service, which may be the subject matter of the Competition.
  29. The Competition shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of Ontario and the applicable laws of Canada.

The Participant(s) of the Competition undertake to indemnify and keep Microsoft harmless and indemnified against any loss, damage, claims, costs and expenses which may be incurred or suffered by Microsoft due to breach of any Terms and Conditions contained herein by the Participant(s) and, or, arising from the participation of the Participant(s) in the Competition including any third party claims for infringement of intellectual property rights.