FAQs

The Red Hat Challenge Official Rules for Eligibility state that "full-time / part-time / executive students attending graduate business school or graduate design school in pursuit of a master's in business administration or similar degree" are eligible. We construe "similar degree" fairly liberally, and are inviting graduate students in computer science, technology, marketing, finance, public administration, science, and the humanities to participate. Only students who are legal residents of the following countries are eligible: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (excluding Quebec), China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

No, all team members must be affiliated with the same school. The Red Hat Challenge is an opportunity for students to represent their schools in competition with other top academic institutions around the world.

The competition is open to an unlimited number of teams per university. We encourage multiple teams because it increases your school's chances of making it to the final round.

Although we allow teams of three to five members, we recommend forming teams of four. Studies have shown that teams of four are most conducive to creativity and collaboration. We also recommend building a team with varied backgrounds and skill sets. Many teams attribute their success to differences in gender, culture, areas of expertise, and professional backgrounds.

To invite a new team member, click on the "Your Team" tab and select "Add Member". To delete a current team member, click the "Delete" link to the right of the individual's name. If the name or email address is incorrect for any team member, please "Delete" them from your team and re-add them with their correct Name and email address.

Team members who register at the beginning of the contest must participate throughout the contest, with one exception: teams may make one (1) substitution prior to the close of registration upon written approval of the event sponsor. Once registration is closed, no changes or substitutions will be allowed. No team may enter more than once; no entrant may compete on more than one team.

You will not be able to submit your New Concept Plan to the online judging panel until all members of your team have registered. If all members of your team have not registered, your concept plan will not be judged, and your entry will be forfeited from the competition. Please ensure that all members of your team register before the submission deadline, so that you can see how your new concept fares against those of your competitors!

Please log into the system with your Login ID and Password and click on the "Your Team" tab. If you see "(Not Registered)" next to any of your team members' names, this means the team member has not completed the registration process. After ensuring that the team member's email is correct in the system (you can see the email address if you roll your mouse's pointer arrow over the team member's name), click the "Resend Registration Info" link to have an automatic registration email sent to the team member. Please follow up with the team member to make sure they have received it.

We will be posting a list of enrolled teams accessible from the home page early in the registration phase.

You may discuss your team's innovation process and the lessons you learned from the challenge. In our experience, having an understanding of applied innovation practices and techniques differentiates you from other candidates. In addition, if you rank among the top teams, feel free to display your rank on your resume.

The question will be released to participants on March 12th. The question and the supporting materials are confidential and not to be released. While the question will be open-ended to allow for creativity and lateral thinking, winning concepts will be specific and well-articulated.

The Red Hat Challenge question was carefully crafted over the course of several weeks by executives from Red Hat and Idea Crossing.

No, you will receive the challenge question online. You must login to your workspace to view your question.

The question will be released to each registered team on Monday, March 12, 2007.

Because the question has been carefully crafted and framed, we have complete confidence that all teams can address these questions within their unique groups. Our planning committee is not at liberty to reply to questions that relate directly to the question, for reasons of fairness. However, during the global conference call on March16th, all participants will have the opportunity to ask Red Hat any questions they may have during the question and answer portion of the call.

No.

The concept plan is a 3-5 page document (in pdf format) that you and your team develop in response to your assigned challenge question. We provide a concept plan outline which submissions must mirror.

After all your team members have officially registered, log in with your Login ID and Password on the Red Hat Challenge home page (www.redhatchallenge.com) and click the "Contest" tab. Your question will be displayed via the link "Problem Statement" on March 12th. By clicking the "Upload" button, you can upload your finalized concept plan to your contestant workspace. You can also preview your concept plan within your workspace to verify that you are going to submit your final version. Please familiarize your team with our online platform, as well as the background materials provided by Red Hat.

Each registered team must submit their concept plan online, from one team member's workspace, by Sunday, March 25, 2007 by 11:59 P.M. (Eastern Time). This schedule allows all teams 13 days to submit their concept plan.

Yes, you may. The Red Hat background information is provided to ensure a level playing field for all contestants, and to build a general awareness of Red Hat's products / services / industry. We strongly urge you to read these documents to avoid duplication of effort.

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

NOT select "Submit" until you and your team have agreed that your concept plan is final. All team members must be registered in order for your concept plan to be officially submitted to the judges. Once plans are submitted, there will be NO opportunity to make changes. It is critical that your concept plan appears the way you would like in your pdf file as you are solely responsible for its format and appearance.

We follow a two-phase judging process to ensure fairness to all our contestants/teams. In the first phase of judging, each concept plan will be viewed by a panel of judges. In the final round of judging, the top five teams from the first phase will be notified on April 1st that they have been selected as a finalist team. Each team will prepare a 15 minute oral presentation of their concept and will present to a panel of judges via conference call between April 2nd and April 9th. The judges will have a 15 minute window to ask the team questions. See the judging scorecard.

The judges are experts in the field of business and open source technology.

Please click on the "Forgot Password?" link in the log-in panel, situated at the top left corner of every page. Enter your first (given) name, last (family) name and Zip Code into the form provided. A new system-generated password will be sent to your email address. Please remember that this password is case sensitive (ie., upper and lower cases matter). We highly recommend you go to the "Your Account" tab immediately after login and change it to a password more familiar to you. If you receive an error message that says "Unable to find your user login and/or unable to verify password," please send us an email at info@redhatchallenge.com with "Reset Password" in the subject line.

If you are using an email service that has a Junk Mail filter such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail, your login and password information may have been filtered out as Junk Mail. Please check your Bulk/Junk Mail folder to find the invitation email. If you require further assistance, please send us an email at info@redhatchallenge.com with "Login Info" in the subject line.