Challenge Overview
When contests are currently posted on TopCoder, many of the requirements are documented in wiki pages that are linked to the contest. For example,
http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProjectDetail&pj=30030082
http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProjectDetail&pj=30030325
This takes a lot of time go over between the cockpit and wiki page, and there will be some inconsistency when there are any change, like timelines, prize, etc.
We would like to move away from the usage of the wiki as the default place for contest specs. Instead, we would like to capture the spec contents within Cockpit and then present them on the competition pages to competitors in a simple place. This would also improve the page content for search engines, so new users/customers can find what we have already done, and they may want to involve or ask TopCoder to do business.
Cockpit currently has functionality that allows users to create and format the contest specs (see the "Insert Predefined Template Content" icon in the built-in text editor toolbar when setting up a contest in Cockpit). We also have the ability to load in pre-built spec templates that the user can select from. Once selected, it pre-populates the competition descriptions.
There are two sections in Cockpit which allows PM or Copilot to enter information about the contests (screenshots are provided in Download section):
- Detailed Requirements - Describe what you want to accomplish.
-
Software Guidelines - Submission Deliverables?, Environment Setup Instructions?, Final Submission Guidelines?
The purpose of this contest series is to generate templates for each contest type, so users can follow the templates as a guideline to create professional contest detail page, which also gives competitors clear guide what need to be accomplished.
Contest Scope
This contest is going to review the Past Conceptualization contests and the current Conceptualization spec template in wiki (PDF version is in Download section), generate useful templates for Conceptualization contests, which gives PM and Copilot clearly steps and description for writing up professional contest specifications.
Final Submission Guidelines
Deliverables
For this contest, the main deliverables for this contest are spec templates for Conceptualization contests, the final version for spec templates will be in HTML format, but for now, you can deliver spec templates written in MS Words or other proper format, which has better formatting and highlights. And we can convert it to HTML pages later.
Please provide any original images or sources that is used in your templates.
Please provide sample content in the template, this will help for better documentation.
How to Review/Judge
The submission will judged with the following criterias by our reviewers:
- How well the templates abstract the high level sections that can guide PM, Copilot and Client to write professional contest spec.
- How well the templates is formatted for easily reading
- How well the common pieces is abstracted out for directly usage or addition.
- Avoid duplicated informations
- Examples for each section, which can provide guidance for template users.
TopCoder PMs will provide their feedback and approve the final fix.