Bytes for Development award targets telecentre practitioners

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Created By: Esther on 27-Feb-2008 12:34 AM

Telecentre network leaders from the East Africa region discussed several ways of strengthening the online eco-system. As a result, the network leaders from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, agreed upon the Bytes for Development award as an incentive for practitioners who share good and useful stories, focused telecentre research cases and trainers of Web 2.0 tools to telecentre practitioners.
The award will focus on four categories;
1.    Best Researcher
2.    Best Blogger
3.    Best Trainer
4. Most outstanding story

Best researcher
The jury will provide thematic issues affecting telecentres under which research can be conducted on a quarterly basis.
Such thematic areas may include: Gender and telecentres, policy issues affecting telecentres, management among others.
Once the research is conducted, it will be written in the form of in-depth case study stories that will be posted on the websites.
Network leaders said the best researched story must have relevance to the telecentre movement. Have lessons that practitioners can take away
To choose the best researcher, it will also depend on the number of reads for one’s article.

Best trainer
Trainer champions will be identified in different countries of jurisdiction and they will be charged with training practitioners on the usage of web 2.0 tools in relation to strengthening the quality and number of telecentre practitioners sharing and learning through those practical experiences. They will also direct the key issues of the growing online community.
The Bytes for Development award will be given to the person with the most converts identified through the number of people using the website as a result of the training.

Best blogger
This category is for the practitioners who share the best story or tools on telecentre.org, UgaBYTES websites and national network websites. Both numbers of the articles and the articles’ or tools’ goodness or relevance to the telecentre movement will be used to assess the blogs. The practitioners with the most number of meaningful – informative, analytical, tools and or experiential stories on the website will win the award under the category.
This will also depend on the number of reads for the story
The consistency of the blogger
Look at the feedback from the readers for example look at the readers’ comments, supplements and originality
In an event of a tie, the best blogger may be chosen depending on the number of stories posted

Most outstanding story
This will mostly be up to the jury’s jurisdiction
Should have relevance to the telecentre movement
Rating from the readers
Look at the originality of the stories
The story should have links with other existing works that is link into other existing works

Eligibility
The award is for telecentre practitioners from the East Africa region
Running period: is the normal calendar year – January to December
Members of the jury, network staff, development partners are excluded from the award
Past winners are still eligible for the award
Websites to be considered for the award include: UgaBYTES and telecentre.org websites and the other national network websites – KenTel, TTN, BCTN, RTN.
Language: English speaking


Selection procedures
For the period; January to December articles will be selected on a monthly basis and entered into the competition. The last month’s entries will be selected in January of a new year. Every month the selected entries may be sent to the mailing lists for community voting, which input will be valued in the jury’s progressive assessment.  
Shortlisted entries will be announced one month after the end of running period.
Three finalists under each category will be announced prior to the EATLF.
The winner will be announced during the key events like TLFs
Networks should mobilize further resources for the award
Practitioners can also nominate who the think is the best researcher, blogger or trainer

 

Contact Name: Ndaula Sulah

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