Rules

  1. Eligibility: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Worker Safety and Health App Challenge is open only to: (1) citizens or permanent residents of the United States who are at least thirteen (13) years old at the time of entry; and (2) private entities, such as corporations or other organizations, that are incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.  If a team submits an entry, each member of the team must meet the applicable eligibility requirements – that is, if a team is composed of individual persons, all members must meet the first criterion; if a team is composed of two private entities, both must meet the second criterion; if a team is composed of individuals and private entities, all of the individuals must meet the first criterion and the private entities must meet the second. An individual or private entity may join more than one team. DOL employees are not eligible, nor are other Federal entities or employees acting within the scope of their employment.
  2. Competition Subject to Applicable Law: The Competition is subject to all applicable federal laws and regulations. Participation constitutes each Contestant's full and unconditional agreement to the Competition’s Official Rules and the related administrative decisions described in this notice, which are final and binding in all matters related to the Competition. Eligibility for a prize award is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein.  This notice is not an obligation of funds.
  3. Competition Submission Period: Developers must submit their original application between May 16th, 2012 (12:00 a.m. EDT) and November 30th, 2012 (11:00 p.m. EDT). Submissions will be reviewed to ensure they meet minimum competition criteria before being published on Challenge.gov. After the initial submission is received, DOL may provide Contestants with additional feedback and instruction to help meet the minimum competition criteria, in order to be considered a qualifying entry.
  4. Datasets: Submissions can use both of the following two (2) datasets in any capacity:

    In addition, participants are encouraged to incorporate other publicly available government information including but not limited to state worker’s compensation data [Texas (http://www.tdi.texas.gov/wc/data.html), Washington (http://www.lni.wa.gov/ClaimsIns/Insurance/DataStatistics/WorkersCompData/default.asp), etc.] and information on worker’s rights (http://www.osha.gov/workers.html).

  5. Teams: Challenge Submissions can be from an individual or a team. For applicable prizes, prize money will be awarded to the self-identified application project leader for distribution to the rest of the team at their discretion and independently from the Department of Labor.  Non-monetary prizes will be directed to self-identified application project leaders for coordination between individual/team and prize grantor, and independently from the Department of Labor.
  6. Intellectual Property Rights: All tools submitted to the Young Worker Safety and Health App Challenge remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them.  By registering and entering a Submission, however, the Contestant agrees that DOL reserves an irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy, distribute to the public, create derivative works from, and publicly display and perform a Submission for a period of one year starting on the date of the announcement of contest winners, and to authorize others, including the general public, to use the Submission without restriction on a royalty-free basis. The reservation of DOL rights to authorize use of the Submission by the public includes the Contestant’s assent to DOL’s release of the application under an open-source software license, if DOL so chooses. The Contestant agrees to execute a separate license with DOL, as appropriate, for such purposes.
  7. Submission Topic /Theme: All Submissions should meet the intent and spirit of the challenge, as previously defined in the Challenge Summary section.
  8. Judges: The Submissions will be judged by the judges identified in the challenge details or by another qualified panel selected by DOL at its sole discretion. The panel will judge the Submission on the judging criteria identified in the Challenge Summary section and Section 508 Compliance (see item 10) in order to select winners in each category. Judges have the right to withdraw without advance notice.  Judges may not (A) have personal or financial interests in, or be an employee, officer, director, or agent of any entity that is a registered participant /Contestant in a competition; or (B) have a familial or financial relationship with an individual who is a registered participant/Contestant.
  9. Decisions: The decisions of the judges will be announced on or about October 2nd, 2012, on Challenge.gov.
  10. Section 508 Compliance: Contestants should keep in mind that the Department of Labor considers universal accessibility to information a priority for all individuals, including individuals with disabilities.  In this regard, the Department is strongly committed to meeting its compliance obligations under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, to ensure the accessibility of its programs and activities to individuals with disabilities.  This obligation includes acquiring accessible electronic and information technology.  When evaluating submissions for this contest, the extent to which a submission complies with the requirements for accessible technology required by Section 508 will be considered.?
  11. Publicity: Except where prohibited, participation in the Competition constitutes each winner’s consent to DOL’s and its agents' use of each winner's name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions, and/or hometown and state information for promotional purposes through any form of media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration.
  12. Copyright: Contestant represents and warrants that Contestant is the sole author and copyright owner of the Submission, and that the Submission is an original work of the Contestant, or if the Submission is a work based on an existing application, that the Contestant has acquired sufficient rights to use and to authorize others, including DOL, to use the Submission, as specified in the “Intellectual Property Rights” section of the Rules; and that the Submission does not infringe upon any copyright or upon any other third party rights of which the Contestant is aware, and that the Submission is free of malware.
  13. Liability and Insurance: A registered participant/Contestant shall be required to agree to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal Government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from their participation in a competition, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.  The Contestant shall be liable for, and shall indemnify and hold harmless the Government against, all actions or claims for loss of or damage to property (including any damage that may result from a virus, malware, etc., to DOL computer systems or those of the end-users of the software and/or application(s)), resulting from the fault, negligence, or wrongful act or omission of the Contestant.  Registered participant/Contestant will need to obtain liability insurance in an amount sufficient to cover (or otherwise be prepared to demonstrate financial responsibility for) claims for damages (such as intellectual property claims) arising from or related to competition activities. Contest winners should be prepared to demonstrate proof of insurance or financial responsibility.
  14. Standard Disclaimer: The following disclaimer is mandatory for applications deployed on non-DOL information systems. This standard disclaimer shall be incorporated into the software in such a way that individuals must read and accept its conditions before initial use (NOTE: The standard disclaimer must appear in all capital letters):
    THE MATERIAL EMBODIED IN THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (DOL) OR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF PROFIT, LOSS OF USE, SAVINGS OR REVENUE, OR THE CLAIMS OF THIRD PARTIES, WHETHER OR NOT DOL OR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE POSSESSION, USE, OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
  15. Records Retention and FOIA:  All Submissions become DOL records and cannot be returned.  Any confidential commercial information contained in a Submission should be designated at the time of submission.  Contestants will be notified of any Freedom of Information Act requests for their Submissions in accordance with 29 C.F.R. § 70.26.