Competition for Recognizing excellence in IT media and FOSS Reporting in Africa Award

The African FOSS Reporter Award

Recognizing excellence in IT media and FOSS Reporting in Africa

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has the potential to curtail some obstacles towards adoption and effective use of ICTs in Africa and to contribute to bridge the digital divide. However the potential contribution of philosophy, economy and software development model of FOSS to the issues facing Africa are often overlooked or under-represented by the media.

The African FOSS Reporter Award Competition 2010 aims to highlight the impact of FOSS on the development of Africa. We are searching for enthusiastic writers who want to demonstrate their journalistic abilities by examining these issues. The competition is run in partnership with Deutsche Welle and supported by OSIWA as part of an initiative to raise public awareness of such issues.

FOSSFA has issued a call for entries for the FOSS for Africa Journalism Award competition.

The award recognizes outstanding reporting for a general audience and honor individuals (rather than institutions, publishers or employers) for their coverage of FOSS.

SCOPE

Winning entries are articles that are valuable to their readers, show clarity in their communication and are significant in disclosing, explaining, interpreting and reporting the impact of FOSS on the development of Africa and recognizing newsworthiness.

The award is open to Africans living in Africa, authors of articles or broadcasts that have been published or aired in the last two years.

CONFERMENT OF AWARD

The winner and 2 runners-up will be announced and presented with their awards during a special awards ceremony at the 4th African conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons Idlelo - 4. Each Runner-up will receive a certificate and a full Idlelo Pass. The winner will receive a certificate, an Idlelo pass, and a cash prize.

ENTRY DEADLINE

Deadline for receipt of the awards entries is April 30th 2010.

SUBMISSION

Entries should be sent by email to mediajury@fossfa.net with a copy to fossway@fossfa.net Entry must include the name of reporter, present location, passport and contact details.

Judging Criteria
Subject Matter

Judges will score the subject matter out of 10; based on originality; importance; general interest and usefulness.

Insight

Judges will score the article for insight out of 10, based on accuracy; the value of the insights; the quality and relevance of the sources/opinions.

Writing Quality

Judges will score the articles for their writing quality out of 10, based on grammar; article flow; flair; readability and entertainment value.

Adaptation to the medium

Judges will score the articles for their writing quality out of 10, based on the capacity of the author to adapt the message to the medium.

The Jury

The Jury will be made up of:

The FOSSWAY Project Coordinator

One member from FOSSFA Secretariat

One FOSSFA executive

The Open Society Initiative for West Africa

The Deutsche Welle

One media expert

For more information

More information on FOSSWAY is available on http://www.fossway.fossfa.net

Information on FOSSFA is on http://www.fossfa.net

For more information on Idlelo click on http://www.idlelo.net

Information on OSIWA can be found on http://www.osiwa.org

Deutsche Welle has more information on http://www.dw-world.de
--
International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org