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

Mon Nov 30 09:50:30 UTC 2015

Hi

Just FYI - I'll spend the holidays thinking about how best to structure
this and get in touch with Stefan and Emma in the new year.
Another potential partnership is UCT's 100UP programme [1], but there has
been no response from the lady who manages that project yet.

B

[1] - http://www.sii.uct.ac.za/sii/100up

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stefan Louw <stefan at innovatesa.org>
Date: Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: Advice requested: Designing a open data analytics competition
targeted to high school students
To: Bernelle Verster <bernellev at gmail.com>

Hi Bernelle

I'm glad I could be of some help.

Sure, please do get in touch in the new year and I can potentially arrange
a partnership with Code4CT. My colleague, Emma, manages that program so
I'll run it by her.

All the best,
Stefan

On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 10:25 AM, Bernelle Verster <bernellev at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Stefan
>
> This is immensely helpful, thank you so much!!
>
> Things are very busy my side too - apologies for my delayed reply too.
> You've given very helpful comments and resources, so I'll work with those
> first and then touch base early next year?
>
> In terms of engagement, we are a small team and it may work better to
> officially partner with a group - e.g. your Code 4 Cape Town program. For
> something like that to happen the goals of both sides need to be closely
> aligned of course.
>
> We would like the ShowMeBox to run offline as well, and will pre-load the
> boxes with everything we want on there, but with the capacity to interact
> with the internet to not limit things for participants afterwards.
>
> best regards
> Bernelle
>
> On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 5:14 PM, Stefan Louw <stefan at innovatesa.org>
> wrote:
>
>> 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>
>> 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/>*
>>
>
>

-- 
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/>*
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