[Ambassadors] Fedora Summer of Open Hardware and Fun Sweepstakes

[Dan Mashal]

Spot,

This is awesome!!!

Dann
On Jul 25, 2012 9:07 AM, "Tom Callaway" <tcallawa at redhat.com> wrote:

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