Entries to the open track will be judged on the following seven criteria: value, novelty, learning, efficacy, implementation, presentation and discretionary (bonus points).
Value
How much "value" does the entry show? Value pertains to the scope of the entry's effects. It has two aspects: the number of people reached and the amount of their lives it affects. Something with maximum value would improve the lives of everybody at the company and all of our customers in a way that affects everything they do. Something with minimal value would be making something that doesn't appeal to many people and has a niche usage.
Novelty
AKA "Creativity" or "Originality". A truly novel idea is one no one has thought of before. One that surprises the listener and reveals a new way of thinking. An entry with zero novelty is one that reinvents the wheel and does nothing new. This extends beyond the idea behind the entry, to the methods employed as well. Does the entry solve an unoriginal problem in an original way?
Learning
You will be rewarded for learning new things. You should make it clear what you learned in your presentations. The greater the leap of learning, the greater the reward. If you are someone who's never programmed before and you had to learn how to write a powershell script which was integral to your entry's success then that is incredible and we want to hear about it.
Efficacy
Does the entry actually work? "Work" here means does the entry fulfil the minimum criteria for operation. For example if your brief was "we are going to make a car" then an efficacious result would be a vehicle that could start and drive and have passengers, for example. A non-efficacious result would be one where the car does not start and may even be missing key components like an engine, or a chassis. An in-between project might work but with some caveats that were unknown to start, like the car works, but someone has to manually hold the door on. Efficacy is all about meeting the bare minimum. The quality of the car "as a car" is implementation.
Implementation
How well does the entry perform in the wild? To continue the car analogy from the previous criterion is that a car consisting of an engine and a chassis held together with piano wire and chewing gum might be able to drive (efficacy), but if it can't handle corners, moderate speeds, hills or passengers it has been poorly implemented. A car with strong implementation would be road-legal as well as functional.
Presentation
How good is the video? We are not penalising people for not being experts at video editing but we will be looking for things like good presentation skills, sticking to time, clear slides and demos. "Show don't tell". For every 10 seconds over the time limit the presentation video is, we will dock 1 point from the total score. You get the first additional 10s for free as discretionary time to account for errors and slide transitions etc.
Discretionary Bonus Points
We provide judges a space to give bonus points for qualities that can not be expressed in the above criteria.
