How do we prepare our semi-final solution?
by C:F Team on 27th January, 2010 at 8:53 AM CEST
Team creators of semi-finalist teams might have already noticed that you now have the ability to post your new solution in your team's Project room. The process of posting your solution is similar to the process you've already encountered in the first round, although there are some minor differences. Today, we'd like to share with you some tips that can help you and your team create and submit a great semi-finalist solution. And remember, the deadline for submitting solutions in the semi-finals is February 15, 2010 at 5 PM CEST.
Submitting the solution
You start the submission process by click on the Post our solution button in your Project room (team creators only). As in the previous round, you will see a form where you can specify the title of the solution and write the abstract and detailed description for your proposal. You can also include a web link with additional information if you have one (for instance, your proposal website).
In the next step, you can add attachments that support your submitted proposal. Note that you should submit the main text of your proposal in the text form in the first step, not as an attachment. When you're done with attachments (you can even skip this step), Save your solution.
After you save your solution, you, your team mates and your mentor (if you have one) will be able to view your team's solution by clicking on the View our solution button in the team's Project room. When viewing your solution, you will see the option to edit the solution and post a video or a presentation (again, team creators only). Don't forget to post a video or a presentation with slides to your solution, as the community will vote on your proposal based on your video/presentation.
Posting the video or presentation is easy: just click on either the Post our video or Post our presentation button and upload your video or presentation file. Your file will be automatically uploaded to YouTube (if you'll post a video) or SlideShare (if you'll post a presentation). Note that you can only add one video -or- one presentation to your solution, so you only need to upload either a video or a presentation.
Basic tips for solutions
Before you start developing your solution, make sure that you:
- go through the challenge details and additional resources that you have in your project room,
- do some market research on the topic you'll be writing about (make sure your idea hasn't been implemented yet),
- take a look at the judging criteria, so that you'll know what the judges will be looking at when grading your submission.
When you have the background covered, it's time to start preparing your submission. You will find the requirements for the idea proposal that you will submit as the detailed solution description in your team's Project room. The idea proposal will be evaluated by our judges and will not be visible to the community. Make sure you follow the instructions as closely as possible, although you can make some minor adjustments if needed (especially in the Breakthrough Idea challenge). If you're unsure about any of the instructions, don't hesitate to send us your questions.
And don't forget to use a spellchecker and double or even triple check your solution before posting the final version! =)
You will also have to prepare a video or presentation that the community will be able to vote on. Here are some of the things you should keep in mind when preparing your presentation:
- pay attention to proper copyright use; you can use a search engine like http://search.creativecommons.org/ to find multimedia with the right license,
- try to be short and concise in your presentation, you don't have a lot of time to sell your idea to the viewers,
- make sure you present your solution in the presentation and keep in mind that the community will not have access to the detailed solution,
- avoid having too much text on screen,
- if you're doing a video, add some music (don't use copyrighted music!) or/and narration to make the video more interesting,
- you can create a website with additional info about your solution and mention the link in your presentation.
Tools for creating your video or presentation
You can use a desktop application like PowerPoint, Impress (part of OpenOffice) or Keynote if you want to create a classic presentations with slides. Keep in mind that some presentation applications even allow you to export your presentation as a video. If you want to collaborate with your team mates on your presentation, you can even use Google Docs to create a presentation on the web and export it as a PowerPoint or PDF file.
You can also use a screen recording application like the free web service ScreenToaster to record the action on your screen. In this case, you can use your browser to present your idea or a tool like Prezi to create your presentation, and then capture everything with a tool like ScreenToaster to create a video.
If you want to do a more complex video presentation, you might want to use video editing software to combine different videos, still images and sounds. You can find a list of open source video editing software that is usually free to use on this link. You can also use easy to use video editing software that is included in your operating system, for instance Windows Movie Maker (Vista users can download a special version of Movie Maker) or iMovie on Macs.
Have more questions?
We hope we managed to provided some helpful tips in this post. If you have more questions on how to prepare your solutions, just send us a message or use the forum to ask your questions. We'll be happy to help you out!
Creative Commons Search (http://search.creativecommons. org/) also enables you to search for music. Just make sure you select the music or media tabs when performing your search.
You can also use Google to find music under Creative Commons license, as a lot of artists provide their music with a CC license through their own website. For instance, you can search for a certain genre and add "Creative Commons" to your search.
Another option is to check websites that sell Royalty Free Music and sometimes provide some free Royalty Free Music there. Or find some free music in Public domain (mostly classic music).
Good luck with your search!
7th February, 2010 @ 6:58 PM CEST
The video demanded in the breakthough idea challenge submission is of 3 mins... But my video comes out to be 3mins 3seconds.... Is tat fine???... Please let me know as soon as possible....
14th February, 2010 @ 6:16 PM CEST
@Parth: I'm afraid you'll have to limit your video length to exactly 3 minutes or less.
14th February, 2010 @ 7:46 PM CEST
Thank you madam for clearing the doubt. I have edited it to 3 minutes and uploaded the video as of now but what if it is removed from Youtube some days later due to any violation?? Will we be allowed to send a new link of the same video at that moment???
15th February, 2010 @ 8:29 AM CEST
How do we add pictures in our submission for the judges??? Can anyone please help me on this.....
15th February, 2010 @ 9:32 AM CEST
Parth, the videos should be your original work and therefore there should be no reason for YouTube to remove it. In case of problems, we'll solve them on a case by case basis.
And you can't add images directly into your main submission for the judges, text only. However, you can add any images you have as attachments to your solution, and then just refer to them in the text (e.g. "see attachment Figure 1 - Our chart"), so that the judges will know which image to look at.
Hope that helps!
15th February, 2010 @ 9:42 AM CEST
Pls can you tell me how many slides exactly should the slideshow presantation have ???
15th February, 2010 @ 4:16 PM CEST
@Besart: As many as you wish, although it's best to keep the presentation short and concise :)
15th February, 2010 @ 4:30 PM CEST
mam we are tryin since last 3 hrs to post our solution but der is some error.... now it is showin the page not found... i have both my solution and video ready.. please tell me wat shd be done...
15th February, 2010 @ 6:30 PM CEST
The deadline for submitting solutions is now over, so you won't be able to add or edit your solution on your own anymore. Please send your solution to info@challengefuture.org and we'll see what can be done. Thanks!
15th February, 2010 @ 6:38 PM CEST
man i have just sent d full solution to info@challengefuture.org... please check n let me know... it was a technical problem... please look into d matter and consider d case....
15th February, 2010 @ 6:41 PM CEST
madam we are waitin for your reply... please let us know as soon as possible... dis competition means a lot to us and we dun wana lose after coming so close....
15th February, 2010 @ 6:47 PM CEST
We got your mail, Parth and we'll try to fix your solution. It may take some time though, as we're getting a lot of e-mails with solutions.
15th February, 2010 @ 6:48 PM CEST
thank you madam.... we are waiting for your confirmation....
-Team Divine Vision
15th February, 2010 @ 6:50 PM CEST
madam our video is not there on the challenge future channel on Youtube.... I had already mailed the link yesterday to info@challengefuture.org as per your instructions....
Team Divine Vision
16th February, 2010 @ 8:31 AM CEST
We're working on it, Parth. We got a lot of e-mails yesterday, and we're still sorting all the different solutions.
16th February, 2010 @ 9:32 AM CEST
HI MAM..when will the finalists would be announced? as in on which date??
17th February, 2010 @ 12:37 PM CEST
The finalists will be announced on March 12 at 5:00PM CEST. You can find all important dates on the Entry details page: http://challengefuture.org/us/ entry-details
17th February, 2010 @ 12:42 PM CEST
Anoushe Hassan
Could you please provide a link from where we could get music that is not copyrighted? Or any other way through which we could use music without violating any copyright issues.
7th February, 2010 @ 4:43 PM CEST