The non-contenders were such for several reasons -- and some failed for more than one of these reasons:

• They submitted something that just didn't fit the category. Given that we were judging Composite Applications, we had a large number of toolkits submitted, some of which were very good as toolkits, composite app components that customers could wire in to their own apps but were not out-the-box composite apps.

• The submission itself just wasn't any good -- there wasn't anything to judge -- little collateral, no add on material such as slideware, documentation, screenshots, videos.

• The application wasn't a Notes Composite App at all. Had one or two of those, one of which was a toolkit, but not a composite app toolkit and so failed twice over. However,this one was well presented, so it's hard to see how the submitter had failed to see that he was submitting into the wrong category -- or had totally failed to read the category guidelines.

• They just failed to describe the USP (unique selling premise) of the application, what there was about it technically, or about how Composite App technology enabled it to solve business problems better than without it. These were at least better than those that totally missed the mark, but still were pretty quickly rejected.

• There were one or two submitted from non-English-speaking applicants that really suffered from the language perspective. I, for one, gave these as much leeway as I could, because a poor command of English from a submitter whose business language isn't English should not suffer for it, but even then, they were not able to do as well as the native English submissions. But in the end it was the quality if the submission in terms of the app and the collateral that did them in, and not primarily the poor English.

What I think applicants need to do is firstly determine whether they want to win, and how much effort they are prepared to expend to win. I guess that means looking at their market place to determine how much a Lotus Award will bring to them, and how much effort they are prepared to put into a submission. There's no point in a half-baked submission -- they need to do their best, or not bother at all. And if the submitter is not an English speaker, then they need to consider getting some translation services to ensure that the submission has the best chance.

Then they need to examine the award categories that are open to them, and decide which category or categories they can properly compete for. This requires detailed reading of the category rules and conditions, and an analysis of what they have that fits. Having done that, they then need to see what features of their product or service need to be brought out in the submission to make the product or service stand out from the other submissions. In the Composite Apps class, that means using the technology well, thinking about what the components are, and showing how they are wired together to deliver something of value. We looked at how many moving parts there were, how the UI was structured, how it would help the end user do whatever it was the app was helping them to do.