Digital natives video contest opens

News release

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), Bangalore, and HIVOS Knowledge Programme, The Hague, kickstarted the 2011 Digital AlterNatives Video Contest on 15 December 2011. With the tagline of ‘To Be, To Think, To Act, To Connect’, the contest revolves around the theme of the ‘Everyday Digital Native’ and asks participants to share stories on what makes their everyday life ‘digital’.

“The Everyday Digital Native is hiding inside each of us. You ‘think’ digital. You connect using digital devices and gadgets. You act digital, always clicking, linking, tagging and Liking. You know what it means ‘To Be’ digital. It’s simply a way of life,” goes the catchphrase of the video contest.

The contest, which will run over the first year of the new year, through to April 2012, will progress through four main rounds. In the first stage, participants send in their written abstracts by 26th January 2012, giving details of their video proposal and what inspired their story line. The proposals are then judged by a panel of jurists where 25 ideas get shortlisted to the next round. “The top 25 videos will be put up on both, CIS and HIVOS websites as well on the organization’s YouTube Channel, Super Digital Natives. The public will vote for their top ten favorites. Finally, the judges pick the two best videos among the ten,” say the organizers.

Unlike other video contests where only one winner gets to take it all, the Digital AlterNatives Video Contest will award the Top 10 videos the winning prize of EUR 500 each. All shortlisted videos also get a chance to be part of a film screening at CIS premises in Bangalore before the close of the contest in April next year. The two best video makers also get the ‘Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?’ books and loads of other CIS goodies, including a one year subscription to their favorite digital magazine.

A panel disucssion on ‘The Everyday Digital Native’ is also on the cards, where participants can discuss their ideas and inspiration for the videos at a workshop and interact with the judges. Judges for the video contest come from a wide-ranging spectrum of art, technology and society, including Sweden-based media-art historian, cultural theorist and psychoanalyst Leon Tan, documentary and feature film maker Shashwati Talukdar from India, Dutch installation and digital media artist Jeroen van Loon, ICT practiotioner and technology-for-communities acitvist Becky Band Jain from New York, Namita Aavriti from India, who’s a legal researcher and media practitioner, Mr Abinandhan Ramanujam, cinematographer from the south Indian film industry, HIVOS Knowledge Programme Officer Fieke Jansen, and CIS Director of Research Nishant Shah.

The video contest is part of the ‘Digital Natives with a Cause?’ project, a three year knowledge inquiry into the field of youth, technology and change undertaken jointly by CIS and HIVOS. “The project uncovers the ways in which young people in emerging ICT contexts make strategic use of technologies to bring about change in their immediate environments,” elaborates Shah. Ranging from personal stories of transformation to efforts at collective change, it aims to identify knowledge gaps that existing scholarship, practice and popular discourse around an increasing usage, adoption and integration of digital technologies in processes of social and political change.

The organizers are planning a Webinar in the beginning of 2012, where jury members will talk about the idea behind the contest and share tips with participants on how to go about sending in that winning video proposal.

There is no restrictive criteria such as age, language or nationality to apply to the contest. Entries can address topics such as, but are not restricted to digital activism, changing dynamics of relationships in a digital world, education and technology in the classroom, privacy and open data, social media and information sharing, new ways of collaboration, work and research, the rockstar status of hackers, the varied demographics of those who use digital technologies. The written proposals have to be sent in by 08 Janaury 2012 either through the online submission form available at CIS, India website (http://cis-india.org/digital-natives/contests) or through a Word Document via Email. Proposals have to be sent in English, however, the final video can be in any language with English subtitles.

Besides written proposals, the organizers are also anticipating creative submissions in the form of storyboards, sketches or a collage. “We encourage participants to explore the range of visual media at their disposal. Be it a short video narration or a power point presentation, we encourage participants to submit ideas through the medium that best conveys your story.” Organizers say that contestants have a free reign when it comes to the genre and execution of the script. The only stipulation being run-time: the video cannot exceed 10 minutes in run-time and the lower limit is set at 60 seconds.

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The deadline for submission of written proposals is 26 January 2012.

For more information, visit contest page: http://cis-india.org/digital-natives/the-everyday-digital-native

 

Contact:

Nilofar Ansher

Community Manager: Digital Natives with a Cause?

Email: digitalnatives@cis-india.org | Twitter: @cis_india

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