FCC Open Internet Apps Challenge

xtacy · on Jan 17, 2011

This is confusing:

  OPEN INTERNET RESEARCH CHALLENGE
  ...
  Both published and unpublished papers will be accepted.  
  Published research papers need to have been published 
  after January 2007.  Both published and unpublished papers 
  are limited to 20 pages (11 point font).

and...

  ENTER THE RESEARCH CATEGORY
  Submissions in the research paper category shall be ...
  ..
  Papers need to have been peer-reviewed by a recognized 
  scientific conference or journal and must have been 
  published after January 2007.  Papers can be uploaded in  
  either PDF or Word format. There are no page limits for 
  research papers.

EDIT: I presume that it should have been:

  Papers (that have been published) need to have been
  peer-reviewed by a recognized[..]

protomyth · on Jan 17, 2011

This kind of problematic wording is typical of Federal RFPs. Generally, you end up calling the federal project officer and getting clarification.

joeybaker · on Jan 17, 2011

challenge.gov feels like a checkbox that's been preemptively marked, and not a serious tool. The problems are too vague to be acted on, the rewards are small, and the community is anemic despite the potential PR weight of the US gov.

d2viant · on Jan 17, 2011

No joke. As far as I can tell there really is no reward.

You get "invited" to D.C. to attend a reception where you have to present your app to a commission. Your app then gets featured on the FCC website. You have to pay your own way there for all of that and can then get reimbursed by the FCC...up to $500 per person.

What exactly is the incentive?

zacstewart · on Jan 17, 2011

United States Code repo. Tree visualization to show which laws stem from preceding laws stemming from the Constitution.