Rules

Thank you for your interest in Future of Data Challenge (the “Competition”). The Competition is sponsored by Omidyar Network with platform support provided by Carrot. Please know that by participating in this Competition and in accordance with these Rules you are eligible to receive various forms of recognition and a possible Award from Omidyar Network of up to $100,000 as a Winner and up to $20,000 each for up to five promising solutions. The Rules governing this Competition ("RULES") are stated here as an extension of the Terms & Conditions ("TERMS") for use of this website. The full TERMS are available for your review by accessing them on this Website. The RULES constitute "Competition Terms and Conditions" under Clause 2.3 of the TERMS. Capitalized words used but not defined in the RULES have meanings given to them in the TERMS. Further, any language contained on this website, including but not limited to these RULES, are also an extension of the TERMS, and therefore You are required to read and understand the entirety of the Website content before proceeding.  

Please read these RULES and the TERMS carefully, as they describe the conditions under which you are allowed to participate. As you participate, you may periodically be asked to recognize your acceptance of these RULES and the TERMS by clicking "accept" at various pages on this website, but by continuing any use of this website you expressly consent to all of these RULES and the TERMS.

SUBMISSION OF AN ENTRY INTO THIS COMPETITION CONSTITUTES FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL AGREEMENT TO AND ACCEPTANCE OF THESE RULES AND THE TERMS.

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN.

1. Eligibility

Omidyar Network welcomes applications from individuals over the age of 18 years, who are representing a Lead Organization as an Applicant.

Applicants from around the world are eligible to apply. Applicants may be required to certify that the laws of their governing jurisdiction do not prohibit or restrict the receipt of an Award under this Competition. The Competition Sponsor reserves the right to reject an Entry if, in the Competition Sponsor's sole discretion, the laws of the governing jurisdiction applicable to the Future of Data Challenge would prohibit or limit the Competition Sponsor from proceeding with the Competition as intended or if the Competition Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion, that the consideration or making of any Award would impose additional administrative, tax, operational, or legal burdens on the Competition Sponsor.

Each Applicant must identify a Lead Organization as the recognized agency in the execution of any proposed Project contained in an Entry. The Lead Organization will assume responsibility for the receipt and management of any Award funds from Omidyar Network and will maintain those fiduciary duties in close coordination with any partner organization(s). The purpose of including a Lead Organization is to ensure that there is sufficient administrative support and management for the use of any Award Funds and not to disintermediate the role of any partner(s) who are essential to the implementation of any proposed project contained in any Entry.

Eligibility related to any Lead Organization by type are as follows:

• Any company or business, either privately held or publicly traded, for which the entity can provide evidence of good standing in all relevant and governing jurisdictions.
• An entity that is recognized under the law of the applicable jurisdiction as a non-governmental organization, a charitable organization, a social welfare organization, a not-for-profit organization, or similar-type entity that is not a for-profit organization or government agency.  
• An entity organized under the laws of the applicable jurisdiction which has received a tax determination letter from the IRS or has been determined to be the equivalent of a section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) organization by NGO Source for which an equivalency determination has not expired and would be in effect or could extended through the date of the project to be supported.  
• A nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) of the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS").  
• A private foundation under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC that has received a tax determination letter from the IRS.

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Eligible organizations are welcome to collaborate with for-profit companies, foundations, schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, individuals, and other entities in order to implement the solution.

An organization can submit only one application as the Lead Organization. An organization can also serve as a partner on a team for multiple applications provided that each application proposes a separate, distinct solution.

Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and nonprofits within or based in a college/university, can each register and submit separately as the Lead Organization on one application as long as the proposed solutions are different and separate. There should be no overlap in team members. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application. We encourage teams to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria.

2. Ineligible persons or entities

Neither individuals, government agencies, nor Omidyar Network-affiliated individuals or organizations are eligible to benefit monetarily from the Future of Data Challenge nor to be the Lead Organization for any Applicant. Organizations receiving current or past funding from Omidyar Network may apply with projects that represent significantly different concepts – Future of Data Challenge funding may not be used for operations and/or activities currently funded by Omidyar Network.

Government agencies and individuals may serve as partners on an Entry submitted by an eligible entity.  

Individuals that include employees of Omidyar Network, Carrot, and any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees, are not eligible to participate.

3. Financial and Organizational Capacity

All Applicants must demonstrate the financial capacity of any Lead Organization that may be the recipient of any Awards in order to carry out any project and to appropriately manage any Award.

4. Prohibited Use of Award Funds

Award funds must be used for the Project for which they are intended, and may not be used:

• To benefit Omidyar Network-affiliated organizations   (see Terms & Conditions 1.1 and Rules 2);
• To influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive (within the meaning of United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) section 4945(d)(2));
• To distribute funds to any organization not identified in the proposal;
• For the creation of any endowment or for the aggregation of philanthropic capital;
• For the creation of a venture capital fund, or pooled funds to invest in or distribute to for-profit organizations;
• For loans or microloans to individuals, nonprofit, or for-profit entities;
• Services provided by government.

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Funds may be dispersed from a Lead Organization to other partners to implement the proposed solution, and not for general funds used for broader purposes. In some cases, up to 10% of the $100,000 award may be used toward overhead/indirect/general operating costs related to implementing the proposed solution.

5. Treatment and Use of Intellectual Property

Each Application should reflect the anticipated ownership, use, and licensing of any intellectual property; the use and licensing of intellectual property of the winning Entry will be subject to the terms of an agreement with the Competition Sponsor. You represent and warrant that your Entry is an original work created solely by You, that You own all Intellectual Property in and to the Entry, and that no other party has any right, title, claim or interest in the Entry, except as expressly identified by You to us in writing in Your application. You retain all right, title and interest in any inventions, software or work of authorship You invent or create and the ownership and use of intellectual property arising from this Competition remains with You, subject as may be set forth in the agreement with the Competition Sponsor.

6. Award Agreement

Any Winner shall enter into a direct and separate award agreement  with the Competition Sponsor, containing key terms and conditions which are separate from these RULES and TERMS posted on this website for this Competition.

7. Other Rules

7.1 Your application must be in English.

7.2 You must complete registration to participate in the Competition. You cannot reside in nor be governed by countries that are prohibited by law, regulation (including United States or other applicable export laws and regulations), treaty or administrative act from entering into trade relations (including export of technology) with the United States of America or its citizens.

7.3 Your Entry should meet the application requirements stipulated on this website. You are required to register in advance of any deadlines for the submission of an Entry, and You must comply with all other deadlines posted on this website. Your Entry may not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of Omidyar Network and/or Carrot, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. Omidyar Network reserves the right to cancel, modify or suspend Competition in whole or in part without liability to You. Omidyar Network and/or Carrot also reserves the right to disqualify You from participating.

7.4 By participating in the Future of Data Challenge, You represent, warrant, and agree that:

1. You are the sole author, creator, and owner of the Entry;
2. the Entry is not the subject of any actual or threatened litigation or claim;
3. the Entry does not and will not violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other legal rights of any third party;
4. the Entry does not and will not contain any harmful computer code (sometimes referred to as "malware," "viruses" or "worms"); and
5. the Entry, and Your use of the Entry, does not and will not violate any applicable laws or regulations, including, without limitation, applicable export control laws and regulations of the United States and other jurisdictions. If the Entry includes any third party works (such as third-party content or open-source code), You must provide the Competition Sponsor with all appropriate licenses and releases for such third party works. In the event You cannot provide all such required licenses and releases, the Competition Sponsor reserves the right, in the Competition Sponsor's sole discretion, to disqualify the applicable Entry.

7.5 You may participate by registering, but You may not register more than one true and uniform identity; multiple registrations for a participant using multiple identities are not allowed. Omidyar Network and/or Carrot reserve the right to disqualify any Entry made by a participant violating this limitation, regardless of whether all of the respective parties had knowledge of such violation. You may only submit one Entry.

7.6 The application requirements for your Entry are clearly described on this website. Your Entry will be assessed initially by five Judges (both peers and experts), who will be assigned to score your Entry either randomly or after considering any potential conflicts of interest, using the scoring rubric and any other judging criteria that are also described on this website. In cases where a Judge indicates any potential conflict of interest, the Entry will be assigned to another Judge. Judges will be responsible for scoring your Entry.

7.7 Once a rank order of Entries has been calculated, the top-scoring Entries will be reviewed by the Selection Committee with consideration given to diversity of solutions, geography, feasibility, and other criteria that may incorporate considerations beyond the Judges’ reviews. The Selection Committee Judges are permitted to communicate with Competitors solely for the purposes of carrying out due diligence for evaluating Your Entry and assigning a score during the review process, but those Judges are not required to contact any individual. By participating in the Future of Data Challenge, You acknowledge and agree to be bound by the final decision of the Competition Sponsor.

7.8 While Carrot is providing an online platform for your participation, Carrot is not responsible for the payment of any Award(s). Payment of any Award(s) is the sole responsibility of Omidyar Network and its designees, and under the Terms each participant has agreed to look solely to Omidyar Network, as the Competition Sponsor, for the payment of any Award.

7.9 By submitting your Entry, you agree to release, discharge and hold harmless Omidyar Network and Carrot and their partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, agents and their employees, officers, directors and representatives from any Loss arising out of your participation in Competition and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any Award(s). Neither Omidyar Network nor Carrot assume responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorized access to Competition entries or entry forms; or alteration of entries or entry forms. Neither Omidyar Network nor Carrot are responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to competitors’ or any other persons’ computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to this Competition. In the event of a dispute about the identity of any Competitor, an online registration will be declared as if made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at time of entry.

7.10 THIS COMPETITION IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Competitors agree that this Competition shall be subject to and governed by the laws of the United States of America and the forum of any dispute shall be in the courts of the United States of America.

7.11 If for any reason Competition is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, Trojan horses, denial of service, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of Carrot that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Competition, Carrot reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) who tamper with the process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Competition. If Omidyar Network and/or Carrot terminates the Competition, it will not retain any rights in the submitted Entries.

7.12 The Competition Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any Competitor who is found to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Future of Data Challenge, to be acting in violation of these Rules, or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with the intent to disrupt or undermine the legitimate operation of the Future of Data Challenge, or to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any other person.

7.13 Entry into the Future of Data Challenge does not constitute entry into any other Omidyar Network competition or program, Carrot competition or program, or promotion that may be offered by the Competition Sponsor and/or its affiliates.

7.14 Omidyar Network and/or Carrot reserves the right to disqualify any participant who violates these RULES, the TERMS and any standards of behavior expressed or implied in them.

7.15 The names of the Winners will be posted on this website for such period of time as the Competition Sponsor deems reasonable.

Contact Information

You may contact us with any questions or comments about these RULES. Please enter the Future of Data Challenge in the subject line of your email. You may email us.