It is understandable that the prize pool is only available for US citizens as the US Government can’t pay prize money for competitions to non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents per the COMPETES Act. However, it remains a problem for the community that is built around the kaggle, even knowing that getting into that top position is really hard and it takes a lot more than just a powerful machine(many sleepless nights) to find a state of art solution, kagglers keeps on taking part in one competetion after another. Although, I have never won any prize money before from kaggle but an incentive is what keeps us going to submit one more solution.
\n\nWe must not forget about the scale of this competition, it's going to need a lot of resources and 6 months of sleepless nights. It's hard to imagine a top ranked to work so hard for it.
\n\n\"Learning\" will always be the first incentive but the people who are winning these contests they are giving almost everything they have and as checked by a fellow kaggler almost 80% of the top rankers are non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents, thus it will lead to the degradation of the competition hence degradation in learning.
\n\nI have collected a few a solutions as posted in the discussion forum by fellow kagglers and request everybody to look at the problem calmly and suggest solutions for the same keeping in mind the US Government policies.
\n\nMake the competition \"knowledge\"-type for all
Find additional sponsors for the competition
Make competition invite only (if non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents wants to compete anyway).
DHS should post there problem on some other platform than Kaggle as it does not resonates with Kaggle's essence.
Dual ranking points for people not able to claim the prize.
It is understandable that the prize pool is only available for US citizens as the US Government can’t pay prize money for competitions to non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents per the COMPETES Act. However, it remains a problem for the community that is built around the kaggle, even knowing that getting into that top position is really hard and it takes a lot more than just a powerful machine(many sleepless nights) to find a state of art solution, kagglers keeps on taking part in one competetion after another. Although, I have never won any prize money before from kaggle but an incentive is what keeps us going to submit one more solution.
\n\nWe must not forget about the scale of this competition, it's going to need a lot of resources and 6 months of sleepless nights. It's hard to imagine a top ranked to work so hard for it.
\n\n\"Learning\" will always be the first incentive but the people who are winning these contests they are giving almost everything they have and as checked by a fellow kaggler almost 80% of the top rankers are non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents, thus it will lead to the degradation of the competition hence degradation in learning.
\n\nI have collected a few a solutions as posted in the discussion forum by fellow kagglers and request everybody to look at the problem calmly and suggest solutions for the same keeping in mind the US Government policies.
\n\nMake the competition \"knowledge\"-type for all
Find additional sponsors for the competition
Make competition invite only (if non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents wants to compete anyway).
DHS should post there problem on some other platform than Kaggle as it does not resonates with Kaggle's essence.
Dual ranking points for people not able to claim the prize.
Here's a simple solution: \nThe US Government gives Kaggle the prize money. \nThe Kaggle pays the prize to the winners.
", "rawMarkdown": "Here's a simple solution: \nThe US Government gives Kaggle the prize money. \nThe Kaggle pays the prize to the winners.", "votes": null }, { "id": "195140", "postDate": "06/22/2017 20:25:21", "content": "I am not sure if it is in the bounds of rules and regulations, Kaggle admin should report to this problem and give a proper explanation about it.
", "rawMarkdown": "I am not sure if it is in the bounds of rules and regulations, Kaggle admin should report to this problem and give a proper explanation about it.", "votes": null }, { "id": "195143", "postDate": "06/22/2017 20:37:01", "content": "Goggle is a global company with many non-US citizens working on it. Then, following the same imposed rules, Kaggle could not receive anything for this competition since he has at least one non-American citizen on his team
", "rawMarkdown": "Goggle is a global company with many non-US citizens working on it. Then, following the same imposed rules, Kaggle could not receive anything for this competition since he has at least one non-American citizen on his team", "votes": null }, { "id": "195264", "postDate": "06/23/2017 04:00:32", "content": "In the Rules section:\n\"Pursuant to the America COMPETES Act of 2010, awards for this prize Competition may only be given to an individual that is a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States, or an entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States, subject to verification by the Seeker Competition Sponsor before prizes are awarded. An individual or private entity must be the registered entrant to be eligible to win a prize.\"
\n\nIf Kaggle as acquired by Google falls under the \"entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States\" then it could theoretically be possibly for Kaggle to be the one recipient of the prize(s). Any participants could be under team Kaggle agreeing the prize goes to Kaggle. Then as others have suggested use the prize monies for other competitions e.g. scientific, environmental, health, space, altruistic, etc. that might not otherwise be able to afford an attractive prize pool.
", "rawMarkdown": "In the Rules section:\n\"Pursuant to the America COMPETES Act of 2010, awards for this prize Competition may only be given to an individual that is a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States, or an entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States, subject to verification by the Seeker Competition Sponsor before prizes are awarded. An individual or private entity must be the registered entrant to be eligible to win a prize.\"\n\nIf Kaggle as acquired by Google falls under the \"entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States\" then it could theoretically be possibly for Kaggle to be the one recipient of the prize(s). Any participants could be under team Kaggle agreeing the prize goes to Kaggle. Then as others have suggested use the prize monies for other competitions e.g. scientific, environmental, health, space, altruistic, etc. that might not otherwise be able to afford an attractive prize pool.", "votes": null }, { "id": "195778", "postDate": "06/25/2017 01:24:51", "content": "My concerns is on the fact that this lack of incentive yield top kagglers not to join this competition or even if they join the don't give all of them to push the state of the art results in this task and right now one thing i'm sure about, learning and sharing will be poor
", "rawMarkdown": "My concerns is on the fact that this lack of incentive yield top kagglers not to join this competition or even if they join the don't give all of them to push the state of the art results in this task and right now one thing i'm sure about, learning and sharing will be poor", "votes": null } ], "comments": [ { "id": 195139, "author_name": "paulorzp", "author_url": "", "post_date": "06/22/2017 20:16:59", "content": "Here's a simple solution: \nThe US Government gives Kaggle the prize money. \nThe Kaggle pays the prize to the winners.
", "votes": null, "replies": [ { "id": 195140, "author_name": "syeddanish", "author_url": "", "post_date": "06/22/2017 20:25:21", "content": "I am not sure if it is in the bounds of rules and regulations, Kaggle admin should report to this problem and give a proper explanation about it.
", "votes": null, "replies": [] }, { "id": 195264, "author_name": "something4kag", "author_url": "", "post_date": "06/23/2017 04:00:32", "content": "In the Rules section:\n\"Pursuant to the America COMPETES Act of 2010, awards for this prize Competition may only be given to an individual that is a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States, or an entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States, subject to verification by the Seeker Competition Sponsor before prizes are awarded. An individual or private entity must be the registered entrant to be eligible to win a prize.\"
\n\nIf Kaggle as acquired by Google falls under the \"entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States\" then it could theoretically be possibly for Kaggle to be the one recipient of the prize(s). Any participants could be under team Kaggle agreeing the prize goes to Kaggle. Then as others have suggested use the prize monies for other competitions e.g. scientific, environmental, health, space, altruistic, etc. that might not otherwise be able to afford an attractive prize pool.
", "votes": null, "replies": [] } ] }, { "id": 195143, "author_name": "paulorzp", "author_url": "", "post_date": "06/22/2017 20:37:01", "content": "Goggle is a global company with many non-US citizens working on it. Then, following the same imposed rules, Kaggle could not receive anything for this competition since he has at least one non-American citizen on his team
", "votes": null, "replies": [] }, { "id": 195778, "author_name": "davidfumo", "author_url": "", "post_date": "06/25/2017 01:24:51", "content": "My concerns is on the fact that this lack of incentive yield top kagglers not to join this competition or even if they join the don't give all of them to push the state of the art results in this task and right now one thing i'm sure about, learning and sharing will be poor
", "votes": null, "replies": [] } ], "raw_markdown_by_id": { "195097": "It is understandable that the prize pool is only available for US citizens as the US Government can’t pay prize money for competitions to non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents per the [COMPETES Act][1]. However, it remains a problem for the community that is built around the kaggle, even knowing that getting into that top position is really hard and it takes a lot more than just a powerful machine(many sleepless nights) to find a state of art solution, kagglers keeps on taking part in one competetion after another. Although, I have never won any prize money before from kaggle but an incentive is what keeps us going to submit one more solution. \n\nWe must not forget about the scale of this competition, it's going to need a lot of resources and 6 months of sleepless nights. It's hard to imagine a top ranked to work so hard for it.\n\n\"Learning\" will always be the first incentive but the people who are winning these contests they are giving almost everything they have and as checked by a fellow kaggler almost 80% of the top rankers are non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents, thus **it will lead to the degradation of the competition hence degradation in learning**.\n\nI have collected a few a solutions as posted in the discussion forum by fellow kagglers and request everybody to look at the problem calmly and suggest solutions for the same keeping in mind the US Government policies.\n\n 1. Make the competition \"knowledge\"-type for all\n\n 2. Find additional sponsors for the competition\n\n 3. Make competition invite only (if non-US Citizens/legal permanent residents wants to compete anyway).\n\n 4. DHS should post there problem on some other platform than Kaggle as it does not resonates with Kaggle's essence.\n\n 5. Dual ranking points for people not able to claim the prize.\n\n [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_COMPETES_Act\n [2]: https://www.kaggle.com/egorovevgeny", "195139": "Here's a simple solution: \nThe US Government gives Kaggle the prize money. \nThe Kaggle pays the prize to the winners.", "195140": "I am not sure if it is in the bounds of rules and regulations, Kaggle admin should report to this problem and give a proper explanation about it.", "195143": "Goggle is a global company with many non-US citizens working on it. Then, following the same imposed rules, Kaggle could not receive anything for this competition since he has at least one non-American citizen on his team", "195264": "In the Rules section:\n\"Pursuant to the America COMPETES Act of 2010, awards for this prize Competition may only be given to an individual that is a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States, or an entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States, subject to verification by the Seeker Competition Sponsor before prizes are awarded. An individual or private entity must be the registered entrant to be eligible to win a prize.\"\n\nIf Kaggle as acquired by Google falls under the \"entity that is incorporated in and whose primary place of business is in the United States\" then it could theoretically be possibly for Kaggle to be the one recipient of the prize(s). Any participants could be under team Kaggle agreeing the prize goes to Kaggle. Then as others have suggested use the prize monies for other competitions e.g. scientific, environmental, health, space, altruistic, etc. that might not otherwise be able to afford an attractive prize pool.", "195778": "My concerns is on the fact that this lack of incentive yield top kagglers not to join this competition or even if they join the don't give all of them to push the state of the art results in this task and right now one thing i'm sure about, learning and sharing will be poor" }, "source": "meta" }