Rules

  1. Eligibility: The CDC Flu App Challenge is open only to: (1) residents of the fifty (50) United States (plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa) who are at least thirteen (13) years old at the time of entry (or teams of eligible individuals); and (2) corporations or organizations that are domiciled in the United States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa). Individuals submitting on behalf of corporations, nonprofits or groups of individuals (such as an academic class or other team) must meet the eligibility requirements for individual contestants; however each individual team member need not meet every criterion. An individual may join more than one team, corporation or nonprofit organization. Employees of CDC and HHS are not eligible. The Competition is subject to all applicable federal laws and regulations. Participation constitutes Contestant's full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and administrative decisions, 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.
  2. Competition Submission Period: Developers must submit their original software, tool, game, or visualization between April 6, 2011 and May 27, 2011. Submissions will be published on Challenge.gov as they are received throughout the competition submission period.
  3. Required Datasets: Submissions must use at least one of the following CDC flu datasets.
  4. Teams: Challenge submissions can be from an individual, or a team. Prize money will be awarded to the project leader for distribution to the rest of the team.
  5. Intellecutal Property Rights: All tools and games submitted to the CDC Flu App Challenge remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them, though the DHHS and CDC will retain the right, through an appropriate license agreement, to use and distribute all applications to the public free of charge for one year after the announcement of winners.
  6. Submission Topic /Theme: All submissions should feature at least one of the following flu and health concepts, either independently or in combination. Learn more about flu prevention and treatment.
    • Raise awareness of influenza, and its impact or,
    • Increase education on influenza prevention, and treatment.
  7. Judges and Winner Selection: Except for the People’s Choice category, the submissions will judged by a qualified panel selected by the CDC at its sole discretion. The panel will judge the Submission on the judging criteria identified in the challenge summary in order to select winners in each category. The Judging panel will be finalized by May 01, 2011. Judges have the right to withdraw without advance notice in the event of circumstances beyond their control.
  8. Winners & Recognition: Winners will be virtually announced on June 8, 2011 on Challenge.gov, and prize money will be sent out via mail by June 30, 2011.
  9. Publicity: Except where prohibited, participation in the Competition constitutes winners' consent to the contest’s Sponsor's and its agents' use of winner's name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions, and/or hometown and state information for promotional purposes in any media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration.
  10. Copyright: Contestant warrants that he or she is the sole author and owner of the Submission, and that the Submission completely originates with the Contestant (or is an improved version of an existing application that the submitter has sufficient rights to use – including the substantial improvement of existing open-source apps), that it does not infringe upon any copyright or any other rights of any third party of which Contestant(s) is aware, and is free of malware.
  11. Liability: The Contestant/Submitter 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 CDC computer systems or those of the end-users of the software and/or applications), resulting from the fault, negligence, or wrongful act or omission of the Contestant/ Submitter.
  12. Standard Disclaimer:: The following disclaimer is mandatory for applications deployed on non-CDC 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 CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC) OR THE UNITED STATES (U.S.) 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 CDC 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.