HACC Rules

2024 Official Rules and Guidelines

The full set of rules and guidelines in PDF format is now available.

HACC 2024 Official Rules and Guidelines

Please read the Official Rules and Guidelines document carefully to ensure you are compliant while participating in the HACC. You will agreeing to abide by these rules when you register as an Individual Participant using the HACC 2024 Registration Forms. If you are a minor, you and your parent/guardian will be required to sign a form indicating that you are agreeing to abide by the terms of these rules and they are giving you permission to participate.  Links to complete this step are provided at the end of the registration process.

Please note that if a winning team is found to be in violation of any of the terms of this document, the State of Hawaii may disqualify the team and award the prize to the next highest scoring team.

Rules Changes for 2024

There have been a couple of changes that it is important for you to be aware of. 

  • Teams must choose an Award Category to compete in (Professional, College, or High/Middle School)
    • High/Middle School (all minors & 1 adult advisor; prize must go to the school/sponsored club of the team)
    • College or Collegiate Mixed (College/High School – team captain must be an adult)
    • Professional or Pro Mixed (Pro/Minors)
  • Presentation Participation is limited to 25 teams as follows:
    • Top five high and middle school teams
    • Top five college teams
    • Top five professional teams
    • Top team not selected in first 3 items for each challenge
    • All potential remaining invites will be given based on highest scores received in the technical review for teams not selected in the above items.
    • If not enough teams meet the minimum threshold criteria to invite 25 total teams, the number of presentations will be reduced accordingly.
  • Presentation Time has been increased to 6 Minutes total from 5 Minutes:
    • 2-minute presentation; 2-minute live demonstration of solution (a walk-through of your application) and 2-minute Q&A.

Important Reminders

  • Team Captains, must use the same email address an individual used to sign up when identifying teammates.
  • Project Submission will be via a Google Project Submission Form – this form will need to be submitted no later than 9:00 a.m. November 13 to alert tech review judges your solution is ready to be evaluated.   
  • Prize winners will be subject to verification of identity, state residency (i.e. Hawaii Drivers License or Student ID), qualifications and role of winner in the creation of the submission.
  • If a team is selected to present and for any reason no one from that team can attend to present their solution, that team will be removed from the Presentation Day team list.

Here are highlights of the sections of the rules and guidelines. But don’t stop here!  READ the ENTIRE DOCUMENT. 

Purpose of the Event:

The HACC event is provided as an opportunity for civic engagement to the local technology community in identifying innovative solutions in modernizing state functions and services for a more effective, efficient and open government. Additionally, one of its objectives is to facilitate information technology (IT) workforce development and stimulate the development of ideas that may lead to technology business and economic development for the participants.

Eligibility

The HACC is open to teams or individuals who register via hawaii.gov team HACC 2024 Registration Forms no later than 5:00 p.m. October 15, 2024 and are:

  • Eighteen (18) years of age or older (adults) as of the time of entry and have reviewed and acknowledged these rules and guidelines via web form; and
  • Under 18 years of age (minors), provided they are each a member of a team that includes a minimum of one individual who is an adult (e.g., parent, educator, advisor) and have submitted acknowledgement of these rules e-signed by them and their parent/guardian; and
  • Are State of Hawaii residents or non-resident students currently living in and attending school in the State of Hawaii.

The HACC IS NOT open to:

  • Individuals who are residents of, or organizations domiciled in, any other state or country;
  • Employees, representatives and agents involved with the design, production, paid promotion, execution, or distribution of the HACC, including the Administrator (“Promotion Entities”);
  • Any Judge;
  • Members of the immediate family or household of the employees, representatives, agents or judges, including those individual’s spouse, children and stepchildren, parents and stepparents, and siblings and stepsiblings; and
  • Any other individual whose participation in the HACC would create, in the sole discretion of the State of Hawaii and Administrator, a real or apparent conflict of interest.

Prizes

Only works created between the HACC Kickoff event and the deadline for team submissions of final solutions are eligible for prizes.

 

Open Source

The source code for all submissions shall be published in a public repository on GitHub.com in accordance with the Section 2. Above and must include an open source code license.  We recommend you use the GNU General Public License or the MIT License for open source software.  For other options, please see https://choosealicense.com.

NOTE: Any source code found to have any other type of license (non-open source) will be disqualified from the competition. This open-source requirement only applies to development submitted for the HACC event and does not apply to any development done by the team post event and stored in a separate non-HACC repository.  If a winner is found in violation of Section B-iv of the above PDF, the prize will be revoked.  

A copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software; the Software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.

Code of Conduct

Team Members agree to exhibit behavior to ensure that HACC activities, events, and digital forums:

  • are a safe and respectful environment for all participants;
  • are a place where people are free to fully express their identities;
  • presume the value of others; everyone’s ideas, skills, and contributions have value;
  • don’t assume everyone has the same context, and encourage questions;
  • find a way for people to be productive with their skills (technical and not) and energy; use language such as “yes/and”, not “no/but”;
  • encourage members and participants to listen as much as they speak;
  • strive to build tools that are open and free technology for public use; activities that aim to foster public use, not private gain, are prioritized;
  • prioritize access for and input from those who are traditionally excluded from the civic process;
  • work to ensure that the community is well-represented in the planning, design, and implementation of civic tech; this includes encouraging participation from women, minorities, and traditionally marginalized groups;
  • actively involve others and those with subject matter expertise in the decision-making process;
  • ensure that the relationships and conversations between community members, the local government staff and community partners remain respectful, participatory, and productive; and
  • provide an environment where people are free from discrimination or harassment.

The State of Hawaii and/or Administrator adopt this code of conduct for this Challenge and reserve the right to ask anyone in violation of these policies not to participate in related network activities, events, and digital forums.

Anti-Harassment Policy

  • All events under the HACC network activities, events, and digital forums and their staff, presenters, and participants are held to an anti-harassment policy, included below.
  • HACC is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of staff, presenters, and participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any HACC event or network activity, including talks.
  • Harassment includes but is not limited to: offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion; sexual images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; unwelcome sexual attention; unwarranted exclusion; and patronizing language or action.
  • If a Team Member or other participant engages in harassing behavior, the State of Hawaii or Administrator may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from HACC network activities, events, and digital forums.
  • If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the Hawaii Annual Code Challenge (HACC) at [email protected] or (808) 586-6000. If you cannot reach an event organizer or Administrator and/or it is an emergency, please call 911 and/or remove yourself from the situation.

We value your attendance and hope that by communicating these expectations widely we can all enjoy a harassment- free environment.