<p>Spot,</p>
<p>This is awesome!!!</p>
<p>Dann</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jul 25, 2012 9:07 AM, "Tom Callaway" <<a href="mailto:tcallawa@redhat.com">tcallawa@redhat.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Today (at 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time), we're launching a sweepstakes<br>
for our Fedora Contributors called the Fedora Summer of Open Hardware<br>
and Fun! We wanted to do something nice to thank our Fedora community<br>
for all that they do for Free Software and Content, and we thought that<br>
giving away a lot of Open Hardware would be a great way to do that.<br>
<br>
We're giving away 220 total hardware units, including:<br>
* [50] OLPC XO 1.75 units<br>
* [150] Raspberry Pi (B) units<br>
* [20] Arduino Uno R3 (assembled) units + choice of shield (8 different<br>
shields to choose from)<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, we don't have enough hardware to give something to every<br>
Fedora Contributor, so this is a sweepstakes, and sweepstakes come with<br>
all sorts of rules and restrictions.<br>
<br>
This sweepstakes is for Fedora Contributors (defined as users in the<br>
Fedora Account System who have signed the FPCA and are in one additional<br>
group). There are some geographic and age restrictions, the reason for<br>
this is that it is extremely costly and time-consuming to determine<br>
whether or not it is possible to run a sweepstakes in a given country.<br>
Sweepstakes laws and regulations vary considerably from country to<br>
country, and many countries have strict registration requirements and<br>
fees associated with running sweepstakes. Other countries simply<br>
prohibit sweepstakes entirely. As a result, we are only offering this<br>
sweepstakes in countries where we know that the sweepstakes is lawful.<br>
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.<br>
<br>
Also, please note that Red Hat employees are not allowed to enter the<br>
sweepstakes.<br>
<br>
To learn more, read the full sweepstakes rules, and to enter, please go to:<br>
<br>
<a href="https://fedoraproject.org/openhw2012" target="_blank">https://fedoraproject.org/openhw2012</a><br>
<br>
(You can jump straight to the complete legal sweepstakes rules here:<br>
<a href="https://fedoraproject.org/openhw2012/details" target="_blank">https://fedoraproject.org/openhw2012/details</a> )<br>
<br>
*****<br>
And now, a quick FAQ:<br>
<br>
Q. Hey, it's not summer where I am!<br>
A. That's not a question.<br>
<br>
Q. Why does it say Summer when it isn't Summer where I am?<br>
A. Just close your eyes and pretend it is Summer. Think of the warm<br>
fuzzy feeling you'll get from winning one of these sweet prizes.<br>
<br>
Q. Where did the money come from for this?<br>
A. I'm going to assume you mean that in a specific way, not in the<br>
"Daddy, where does money come from way". If you are really asking the<br>
more generic question, just watch this video<br>
(<a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/cartoons-tv-movies-kids/cha-ching-kids/cha-ching-01-earn-spend-save-donate-kids/" target="_blank">http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/cartoons-tv-movies-kids/cha-ching-kids/cha-ching-01-earn-spend-save-donate-kids/</a>).<br>
For everyone else, the money for this sweepstakes came from a special<br>
allocation from the Open Source and Standards group at Red Hat, and did<br>
not take away from the normal Fedora community budget in any way.<br>
<br>
Q. Why can't Red Hat employees enter? We contribute a lot to Fedora!<br>
A. Because in the eyes of the law, it seems shady when a company runs a<br>
sweepstakes and their employees end up winning.<br>
<br>
Q. Why is there an age restriction on this?<br>
A. Because it is a sweepstakes, and that's the law. It varies by region,<br>
but our app is clever enough to adjust it accordingly.<br>
<br>
Q. I am sad that my state/country/unincorporated region prevents me from<br>
entering this sweepstakes. Is there anything you can do for me?<br>
A. We feel sad that we have to exclude you. Much sadder than the time<br>
that Tasha Yar got eaten by that sentient oil spill. Short of sending<br>
you hardware, money, or other legal impossibilities, feel free to leave<br>
a comment on this post with a suggestion on how we can make it up to<br>
you. Also, feel free to mention your country. If there are hundreds of<br>
people left out in the cold in Luxembourg, we might be able to do a<br>
legal review and have it added for future sweepstakes eligibility (no<br>
promises though).<br>
<br>
Q. What about Fedora users?<br>
A. We love you too, but we really wanted to give an extra-special thank<br>
you to those Fedora Contributors who take that next step and help us<br>
make Fedora better. You can become a contributor and be eligible when we<br>
do something like this again, see: <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora" target="_blank">http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora</a><br>
<br>
Q. If I win, how will I get my hardware?<br>
A. We'll ship it to you, on our dime. We'll ask the winners for that<br>
information later.<br>
<br>
Q. I can't decide which hardware I want, can I pick them all?<br>
A. No. You need to pick one. Just one.<br>
<br>
Q. Can I enter multiple times?<br>
A. No. (Actually, I think the app will let you re-enter if you change<br>
your mind, but only the latest entry will stick.)<br>
<br>
Q. How do you choose the winners?<br>
A. Completely at random from all valid entries.<br>
<br>
Q. How did you get so many OLPC XO units?<br>
A. The wonderful folks at <a href="http://laptop.org" target="_blank">laptop.org</a> donated them for us to give away.<br>
<br>
Q. How did you get so many Raspberry Pi units?<br>
A. Black magic. Deep black magic.<br>
<br>
Q. Why Arduino? It doesn't run Fedora Linux!<br>
A. So what? It's open, its fun, and you can do all sorts of Open Source<br>
geekery with it.<br>
<br>
Q. Why didn't you choose to give away instead?<br>
A. Our crack team of Fedora experts (okay, me, Robyn, and Ruth)<br>
generated a list of hardware, then ranked them by coolness, cost, and<br>
availability. Except for the awesome and well dressed folks at<br>
Laptop.org, no one had any cool free hardware lying around (although, I<br>
offered to put some old SPARC systems in the mix, which was vetoed), so<br>
we ended up spending our money on the coolest things we could get the<br>
most of at the least cost. We'd love to do this again, so feel free to<br>
leave a comment here with your suggestions.<br>
<br>
Q. Hey, I'm a hardware vendor and I want to work with you to give away<br>
more awesome Open Hardware to Fedora people in the future, who do I<br>
contact to help out?<br>
A. Tom Callaway <<a href="mailto:spot@redhat.com">spot@redhat.com</a>><br>
<br>
Q. Anyone else you'd like to thank?<br>
A. Why, how nice of you to ask. I'd also like to thank Ruth Suehle &<br>
Robyn Bergeron for brainstorming, researching, and generally being<br>
awesome to make this a reality. Luke Macken for writing the app code<br>
(and making changes at the last possible minute). Mo Duffy for making it<br>
simple, clean and beautiful to enter. The wonderful folks at Farnell,<br>
Adafruit, Sparkfun, and Laptop.org for all of my export and ordering<br>
related questions. Pam Chestek and Erin Dutton, for helping this<br>
sweepstakes be fully blessed and legally awesome. Amy Ross, for<br>
addressing our many export needs. Kevin Fenzi and the folks on the<br>
Fedora Admin team for making sure we had this webapp running, and<br>
sitting in the proper location (except for that brief minute where all<br>
mainpage traffic was pointing at the webapp, whoopsy!). And of course,<br>
Red Hat and OSAS for paying for it all.<br>
<br>
~tom<br>
<br>
==<br>
Fedora Project<br>
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