HACC Rules

2022 Official Rules and Guidelines

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

HACC 2022 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 are registering on HACC HUI.  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.

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 2022

There have been a couple of changes that it is important you be aware of.  These are:

  • Pitch Training workshop on Oct. 29th is strongly encouraged!
  • Security/Privacy Criteria updates:
    Each team must answer a required security question on hacc2022.devpost.com. The question will be related to how your solutions should be secured and your response must not exceed 300 words. Be specific to your application’s security needs – describe how the different parts/functions of the solution should be secured for both data security and privacy. Do not provide generic security guidance. (If this question is left blank score will be 0 for this category!)
  • Prize Changes:
    Prizes have been added make a distinction between Coded and Low/No Code categories.  A third place has been added to High/Middle School category.  See below for specifics

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 are register via Slack App HACC HUI no later than 5:00 p.m. October 18, 2022:

  • Eighteen (18) years of age or older (adults) as of the time of entry and have reviewed and acknowledged these rules and guidelines via HACC HUI; 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.

The HACC IS NOT open to:

  • Individuals who are residents of, or organizations domiciled in, a country, state, province or territory where the laws of the United States or local law prohibits participating or receiving a prize in the HACC;
  • Employees, representatives and agents involved with the design, production, paid promotion, execution, or distribution of the HACC, including the Administrator (“Promotion Entities”);
  • Any HACC Presentation Day Judge;
  • Members of the immediate family or household of the above, including the individual’s spouse, children and stepchildren, parents and stepparents, and siblings and step-siblings; 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.


* High Schools winning 1st and 2nd place will also be awarded a $1500 PCATT scholarship that their advisors can provide
to several of their students.  The scholarship would go towards earning a valuable technology certification course at PCATT.  

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.