Announcing the Windows Home Server Add-In Idea Challenge ‘09!

Two years ago, Microsoft kick-started Windows Home Server add-in development with a competition called Code2Fame which saw a wide variety of entries from across the USA, with plaudits going to Andrew Grant for Whiist.

Today, We Got Served and Home Server Blog announce the launch of a new add-in competition, open to every home server owner around the world – the Windows Home Server Add-In Idea Challenge ‘09!

You don’t have to be a developer or technically minded to enter. All you need is your creativity and imagination to come up with the best idea for a future Windows Home Server add-in, which will then be coded up and released to the community for all to share.

Here’s how the competition works:

May 1st 2009 Submit your ideas online via the competition entry form

May 31st 2009 Entry period closes

June 15th 2009 Semi-finalists announced (approx 30 ideas) and public voting period commences

June 30th 2009 Public voting period ends

July 1st 2009 Top 10 Finalists announced, competition judging period begins

July 15th 2009 Judging period ends

August 1st 2009 Winner announced

December 24th 2009 Deadline for winning add-in to be released

The winner of the competition will see their idea brought to life by add-in developer Felix Kollmann (author of Router Control) and we’ve secured a load of fantastic prizes, courtesy of a few of our friends in the home server world (think HP, Tranquil PC, Diskeeper, PerfectDisk and more!). We’ll announce full details on prizes in the coming weeks, but up front I’d like to thank our competition partners for their generosity (you’re going to like the prize list!)

To enter the competition, good luck and click here!

We also have set up dedidated forums to discuss and support the competition – if you have any questions or want to share the idea you’ve submitted, check out the forum.

Competition Rules of Participation

The WHS Add-in Idea Challenge 09 (AIC09) is being run in cooperation with home-server-blog.de (HSB), wegotserved.co.uk (WGS) and the HSB Add-in Team (HSBAT).

Contest Rules

Participants must be at least 16 years old, be in possession of a Microsoft Windows Home Server (WHS), and must be registered on HSB by 30 June 2009. Registration will begin on 1 May 2009 at http://www.home-server-blog.de/limesurvey/index.php?sid=84227&lang=en

Suggestions are to be submitted to the abovementioned website. Each participant may submit up to two suggestions. All suggestions must be submitted by 31 May 2009. We reserve the right to deny any suggestion received after this deadline.

In the public voting phase, anyone in possession of a Microsoft Windows Home Server may comment on and rate the suggestions. This phase shall determine the most popular suggestions.

The selection of the finalists is not necessarily dependent upon the public voting. We reserve the right to make the final decision regarding the finalists, and this may or may not reflect the rankings from the public voting phase.

After the announcement of the finalists, an online questionnaire will give all Windows Home Server users the opportunity to comment on and judge the selected suggestions. The objective of this phase is to determine which suggestion has the most potential, both qualitative and quantitative, in the target market.

Members of HSB, WGS, and HSBAT are also eligible to participate.

What Happens Next?

The suggestion which wins the competition will be developed as an add-in for Windows Home Server. The participant with the winning suggestion will be named as co-author of the add-in and will be able to provide his link on the download page. The winner’s status will be equal to the other authors, i.e. all will be considered co-authors.

Participants have no legal claim to the implementation of their suggestions. We are all doing this as a hobby!

The HSBAT reserves the right to make all final decisions regarding implementation, licensing, naming, and the features which are taken from the suggestion. Should the add-in be used commercially, the winner, as a joint-author, will be awarded a one-time remuneration of an appropriate amount.