Think You’re Good at CSS & Want a Free Pass SXSW? Check This Contest Out.
jQuery UI sponsor Filament Group is holding an awesome contest:
“To celebrate ThemeRoller’s selection as a finalist for the SXSW Web Award for Technical Achievement, we’re holding a contest to give away one free pass to the SXSW Interactive Festival to the person who creates the coolest use of the new jQuery UI CSS framework.”
Check out the contest post here: Contest: Win a Free Pass to SXSW Interactive for the Coolest Use of the jQuery UI CSS Framework
Quoting Filament:
We’re really excited about the new jQuery UI CSS framework because it makes it easy to theme UI widgets or even entire layouts with the jQuery UI ThemeRoller web application. To celebrate the nomination and encourage everyone to take advantage of this new framework, we’re holding a contest to see who can demonstrate the most creative use of the framework’s capabilities. The winner will receive a free pass to the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, March 13-17, 2009.
How to get started
First off, download a theme and demo page from jQuery UI ThemeRoller and review the jQuery UI CSS framework documentation to get an idea of how the framework is used. Then head over to the jQuery UI site and grab the handy Firefox ThemeRoller bookmarklet to help you test your styles as you build your project. If you’re creating a demo page, we strongly suggest that you include the Theme switcher dropdown to let people quickly sample ThemeRoller themes on your page and really show off the theming in action.
Remember, the CSS framework is not just for jQuery plugins — framework styles can be used with any Javascript library or your own custom markup. We’d be thrilled to see how far you can go with a cool WordPress template, corporate website, widget or even a game to show the power and flexibility of this system. Feel free to use multiple scoped, themes, too — go wild.
How to enter
We’re going to keep this simple: post a comment with a brief description of your project and a link to a functioning example. The winner will be decided by Filament Group based on the creativity, quality and inventiveness of their project.
Contest rules
- Everyone is eligible, no exceptions.
- You may submit any type of project that uses the jQuery UI CSS framework: public sites, demo pages or anything else that shows off your creativity and is publicly accessible (read: not behind a login).
- You may enter as many unique projects as you wish; each will count as a separate entry. (Please don’t post the same one over and over…that may count against you).
- The entry deadline is Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at midnight.
- The contest winner will be announced on Friday, February 27, 2009.
- The winner will receive a single pass to the SXSW Interactive Festival, which includes admission to the SXSW Web Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 15. We will email you an access code that will allow your to register for free. (NOTE: the pass does not provide entry to the Film or Music festivals, nor does it include transportation, room/board, or meals — you’ll need to cover those yourself.)
- jQuery UI and Filament Group Inc. reserve the right to link to your project (we want to promote your hard work).
A little inspiration
To show off what is possible with the jQuery UI CSS framework, here is a really fantastic example of a plugin that uses the framework really well, from styles to icons. Nicolas Rudas created a very cool Apple-style file browser that also includes the theme switcher dropdown for good measure. He’s taken this a step further by creating a jQuery API browser that uses his plugin. Very cool indeed.
(NOTE: Nicolas Rudas was not notified prior to the announcement of this contest, so Nicolas, if you’d like to enter you’re still eligible to win. How’s that for competition?)
There is a list of plugins that use the CSS framework on the documentation wiki but it’s pretty short at the moment and we’re hoping that this contest really gets people fired up to try out the framework for themselves.
So…get to it, show us what you’ve got!