<div dir="ltr">Hi<div><br></div><div>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.</div><div>Another potential partnership is UCT's 100UP programme [1], but there has been no response from the lady who manages that project yet.</div><div><br></div><div>B</div><div><br></div><div>[1] - <a href="http://www.sii.uct.ac.za/sii/100up">http://www.sii.uct.ac.za/sii/100up</a></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Stefan Louw</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stefan@innovatesa.org">stefan@innovatesa.org</a>></span><br>Date: Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 11:43 AM<br>Subject: Re: Advice requested: Designing a open data analytics competition targeted to high school students<br>To: Bernelle Verster <<a href="mailto:bernellev@gmail.com">bernellev@gmail.com</a>><br><br><br><div dir="ltr">Hi Bernelle<div><br></div><div>I'm glad I could be of some help.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>All the best,</div><div>Stefan </div></div><div class=""><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 10:25 AM, Bernelle Verster <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bernellev@gmail.com" target="_blank">bernellev@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi Stefan<div><br></div><div>This is immensely helpful, thank you so much!!</div><div><br></div><div>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?</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>best regards</div><span><font color="#888888"><div>Bernelle</div></font></span></div><div><div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 5:14 PM, Stefan Louw <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stefan@innovatesa.org" target="_blank">stefan@innovatesa.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi Bernelle<div><br></div><div>Apologies for the delayed response. I've been down with a viral infection for the past two weeks.</div><div><br></div><div>It sounds like an exciting project!</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>We do have about 80 girls in our Code 4 Cape Town program that may well be interested in participating.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Some other pointers that might help from our experience:</div><div><br></div><div>+ getting entrant can be the toughest part. Make sure you know your 'market' and what would entice them. </div><div>+ 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.</div><div>+ 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.</div><div>+ 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.</div><div>+ be very clear on the competition process and rules.</div><div>+ try to make it as personal as possible - almost all advertising apart from physically visiting schools has not worked for us.</div><div>+ 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.</div><div><br></div><div>In terms of resources:</div><div><br></div><div>+ <a href="http://www.nesta.org.uk/challenge-prizes" target="_blank">NESTA</a> has a wealth of resources on innovation, youth, challenges.</div><div>+ 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. <a href="http://yukaichou.com" target="_blank">Here</a> is a good website on it, and there's also a book you can download if you like.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope this helps!</div><div><br></div><div>Warm regards,</div><div>Stefan</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Bernelle Verster <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bernellev@gmail.com" target="_blank">bernellev@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi Stefan<br>
<br>
Lauren Uppink suggested I contact you, and what a delight to learn<br>
about InnovateSA!<br>
<br>
We are designing a competition targeted at high school students,<br>
involving (Free and Open Source) software (Debian) and hardware.<br>
<br>
The ShowMeBox is a competition that uses software and open source<br>
hardware to visualize data relevant to the participants. It is<br>
designed to promote Debian and the art of open data analytics.<br>
<br>
We are currently working on the technical aspects of the competition,<br>
but I need input on how best to design the user-facing part of the<br>
competition, what the students will see, how they will interact with<br>
us, how we will reach them, what issues to consider, how best to pitch<br>
it to high school students, etc.<br>
<br>
We were thinking of having a long running competition, but the advice<br>
I have received so far is to have a short competition -no longer than<br>
one day.<br>
<br>
We hope to start the marketing of the competition before the end of<br>
the year, and we need the competition to end, with prize giving,<br>
during the international Debian Developers Conference held in Cape<br>
Town next year - DebConf16 - around 2 July 2016.<br>
<br>
We are at this stage considering about 300 entrants, but this is<br>
flexible either way.<br>
<br>
More information can be found here:<br>
<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/ShowMeBox" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://wiki.debian.org/ShowMeBox</a><br>
<br>
Could you please let me know if you are willing to help, with an<br>
indication of costs (if any - we are all volunteers, but willing to<br>
commit funds to this to do it right), and if you can't assist, if you<br>
can recommend other people, or resources, books, websites...<br>
<br>
best regards<br>
Bernelle Verster (indiebio)<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div></div></div><span><font color="#888888">-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><font color="#444444">Stefan Louw</font></div><div><div><font size="2" color="#444444">Innovate SA Director</font></div><div><font color="#444444"><a href="tel:084%20945%206591" value="+27849456591" target="_blank">084 945 6591</a></font></div></div><div><img src="http://innovatesa.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Innovate%20South%20Africa%20-%20Logo%20_small%20%28640x305%29.jpg?itok=QkKeqG_t" width="200" height="95"><br></div><div><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/InnovateSouthAfrica?ref=br_tf" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">Join our community</font></a><font color="#00ffff"> </font><font color="#000000">// </font><a href="https://twitter.com/innovate_sa" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">Follow our news</font></a><font color="#000000"> // </font><a href="http://innovatesa.org/" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">Find out more</font></a></b></div></div></div>
</font></span></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><font color="#444444">Stefan Louw</font></div><div><div><font size="2" color="#444444">Innovate SA Director</font></div><div><font color="#444444"><a href="tel:084%20945%206591" value="+27849456591" target="_blank">084 945 6591</a></font></div></div><div><img src="http://innovatesa.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Innovate%20South%20Africa%20-%20Logo%20_small%20%28640x305%29.jpg?itok=QkKeqG_t" width="200" height="95"><br></div><div><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/InnovateSouthAfrica?ref=br_tf" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">Join our community</font></a><font color="#00ffff"> </font><font color="#000000">// </font><a href="https://twitter.com/innovate_sa" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">Follow our news</font></a><font color="#000000"> // </font><a href="http://innovatesa.org/" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">Find out more</font></a></b></div></div></div>
</div>
</div></div></div><br></div></div>