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Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

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Re: Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

#41

Post by OGinparadise »

jtchang wrote: post #6

So many trash comments on the site about how NASA should be "offering more money" or how this is a way for them to "save money" and it is all a scam. Seriously? Any decent hacker attempting this is probably doing it for props. The money is great and provides a good monetary incentive but when it comes down to it I'd wager people would do this for free. Hell a personal tour of NASA and maybe their name in the code mig…

+100. NASA can easily write you a $1 million check and then some for a lot of things, but imagine the satisfaction each time the Space Station is mentioned...that sucker is (partly) running on my code. And then there's the resume thing and your name mentioned all over the interwebs if you win

Re: Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

#43

Post by ProblemFactory »

pingou wrote: post #31
jtchang wrote: post #6

So many trash comments on the site about how NASA should be "offering more money" or how this is a way for them to "save money" and it is all a scam. Seriously? Any decent hacker attempting this is probably doing it for props. The money is great and provides a good monetary incentive but when it comes down to it I'd wager people would do this for free. Hell a personal tour of NASA and maybe their name in the code mig…

The problem is that these 10.000 $ look cheap regarding the amount of work it requires. I can't find a link but there's several studies showing that people are willing to do a lot of things for free if they like it, but they see it like work if it's paid and they enjoy it less, especially if for a ridiculous sum of money. I'm pretty sure Wikipedia would have a lot less content if they paid their contributors 1 cent b…

> I can't find a link but there's several studies showing that people are willing to do a lot of things for free if they like it, but they see it like work if it's paid and they enjoy it less, especially if for a ridiculous sum of money.

This seems to be the unfortunate result every time a bounty or a prize is offered for a public competition with some meaningful task.

* If the task is obviously unuseful (for example other TopCoder competitions, sports competitions), prizes seem to make it more desirable.

* If the task is useful and there is no prize, people jump on the chance of doing something cool.

* If the task is useful and there is a prize, it is seen as work, and judged based on the typical (Western world) hourly rates.

Plenty of open-source bounty boards have had a similar backlash, even though hundreds of thousands of coders work on fixing open-source bugs just because they like it.

It would be great to come up with a solution that stops people being upset at being offered more than nothing, for work they would gladly do for free anyway. But at the moment I don't have any solutions to propose.

For this particular hackathon, NASA would do better to say up front if this is a space publicity competition (and the results are not useful to them), or if they will use the winner's code on the ISS (in which case bragging rights are worth way more than $10k).

Re: Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

#44

Post by McP »

maurits wrote: post #42

A bit more accurate title would be "Be A US citizen, write code, fix the not so international space station, win $10,000".

You don't have to be in the US: "(iv) a non-U.S. resident authorized in the country in which the member resides while participating in this Competition to perform services as an independent contractor."

Re: Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

#45

Post by maurits »

McP wrote: post #44
maurits wrote: post #42

A bit more accurate title would be "Be A US citizen, write code, fix the not so international space station, win $10,000".

You don't have to be in the US: "(iv) a non-U.S. resident authorized in the country in which the member resides while participating in this Competition to perform services as an independent contractor."

Then I stand corrected, thanks.

And for those asking, I read through the terms and conditions until I bounced into this and jumped to a hasty conclusion...

Eligibility This Competition is open to all members of the TopCoder website, who have agreed to the terms thereof, and who are at least 18 years of age. Competitors must be:

(i) a U.S. citizen, (ii) a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., (iii) a temporary resident, asylee, refugee of the U.S., or have a lawfully issued work authorization card permitting unrestricted employment in the U.S., or

For the last line indeed says:

(iv) a non-U.S. resident authorized in the country in which the member resides while participating in this Competition to perform services as an independent contractor.

Re: Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

#46

Post by krisoft »

maurits wrote: post #42

A bit more accurate title would be "Be A US citizen, write code, fix the not so international space station, win $10,000".

Could you cite where it states that you have to be a US citizen? I can't see any restriction apart from the usual ones on Quebec and the axis-of-evil countries.

It's entirely possible that I'm looking at the wrong place, that's why I'm asking.

Re: Write code, fix the space station, win $10,000

#50

Post by ieze »

maurits wrote: post #42

A bit more accurate title would be "Be A US citizen, write code, fix the not so international space station, win $10,000".

Also:

>By winning a prize in this event you agree to transfer ownership of your submission to TopCoder.

So do TopCoder resell the submission to NASA?

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