[Showme-devel] Fwd: Advice requested: Designing a open data analytics competition targeted to high school students

Wed Nov 18 15:44:15 UTC 2015

Hi,

On 18-11-2015 16:27, Bernelle Verster wrote:
> Fyi
> 
> Will respond later.
> 
> B
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Stefan Louw* <stefan at innovatesa.org <mailto:stefan at innovatesa.org>>
> Date: Wednesday, 18 November 2015
> Subject: Advice requested: Designing a open data analytics competition
> targeted to high school students
> To: Bernelle Verster <bernellev at gmail.com <mailto:bernellev at gmail.com>>
> 
> 
> Hi Bernelle
> 
> Apologies for the delayed response. I've been down with a viral
> infection for the past two weeks.
> 
> It sounds like an exciting project!
> 
> Just to set expectations, we only run in-person offline competitions
> that involve solving local problems mainly in township areas so our
> experience may not be completely applicable.
> 
> We do have about 80 girls in our Code 4 Cape Town program that may well
> be interested in participating.
> 
> I'd be happy to meet up if you'd like to pick my brain on certain
> aspects of competition design for youth. Unfortunately I will have very
> little time available for the rest of this year, so maybe we could
> rather do a quick Skype call some time.
> 
> In terms of length of time, it really depends what you want to get out
> of it. It can work well if marketing is your goal, but if you want more
> of a learning experience for the participants I'd suggest longer. The
> key then is just to keep them engaged.
> 
> Some other pointers that might help from our experience:
> 
> + getting entrant can be the toughest part. Make sure you know your
> 'market' and what would entice them. 
> + often the prize isn't the most important aspect - it's more about an
> experience for the students where they are able to grow and meet new people.
> + having one prize can be a deterrent. Often multiple prizes has worked
> better. Youth can be very sensitive to failure so if they feel like
> they've 'lost' that can be a knock to their confidence.
> + the size of the prizes is important. Too big and they will scare lots
> of people off because they will feel like it's for experts.
> + be very clear on the competition process and rules.
> + try to make it as personal as possible - almost all advertising apart
> from physically visiting schools has not worked for us.
> + have a good 'endgame' - make sure there are easy ways for the students
> to get plugged into a community related to what you're promoting.
> 
> In terms of resources:
> 
> + NESTA <http://www.nesta.org.uk/challenge-prizes> has a wealth of
> resources on innovation, youth, challenges.
> + Gamification is a powerful method for designing competitions (as well
> as many other things).  Ultimately it's understanding people's
> motivations so that you can design a process that induces certain
> activities whilst making them enjoyable. Here <http://yukaichou.com> is
> a good website on it, and there's also a book you can download if you like.
> 
> Hope this helps!
> 
> Warm regards,
> Stefan
> 
> On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Bernelle Verster <bernellev at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','bernellev at gmail.com');>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Stefan
> 
>     Lauren Uppink suggested I contact you, and what a delight to learn
>     about InnovateSA!
> 
>     We are designing a competition targeted at high school students,
>     involving (Free and Open Source) software (Debian) and hardware.
> 
>     The ShowMeBox is a competition that uses software and open source
>     hardware to visualize data relevant to the participants. It is
>     designed to promote Debian and the art of open data analytics.
> 
>     We are currently working on the technical aspects of the competition,
>     but I need input on how best to design the user-facing part of the
>     competition, what the students will see, how they will interact with
>     us, how we will reach them, what issues to consider, how best to pitch
>     it to high school students, etc.
> 
>     We were thinking of having a long running competition, but the advice
>     I have received so far is to have a short competition -no longer than
>     one day.
> 
>     We hope to start the marketing of the competition before the end of
>     the year, and we need the competition to end, with prize giving,
>     during the international Debian Developers Conference held in Cape
>     Town next year - DebConf16 - around 2 July 2016.
> 
>     We are at this stage considering about 300 entrants, but this is
>     flexible either way.
> 
>     More information can be found here:
>     https://wiki.debian.org/ShowMeBox
> 
>     Could you please let me know if you are willing to help, with an
>     indication of costs (if any - we are all volunteers, but willing to
>     commit funds to this to do it right), and if you can't assist, if you
>     can recommend other people, or resources, books, websites...
> 
>     best regards
>     Bernelle Verster (indiebio)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Stefan Louw
> Innovate SA Director
> 084 945 6591
> 
> *Join our community
> <https://www.facebook.com/InnovateSouthAfrica?ref=br_tf> // Follow our
> news <https://twitter.com/innovate_sa> // Find out more
> <http://innovatesa.org/>*
> 
> 
> 

Very valuable!
Thanks for sharing!

-Siri

-- 
Siri Reiter Grafisk Design
Stauninggårdsvej 25
DK-4300 Holbæk
Tlf.: +45 27145428
http://sirireiter.dk/

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