Friday, 21 December 2007 | posted by Matt_BC
Guildford 2008
Under the Road to Davos 2008 heading, you can find some information on the 60 participants who will be going to Guildford in less than a month. However, as always there's more to the story.
I started working on this project in late August 2007, at a point when the application process was just about to start. One of the main ideas was to make some use of the Web 2.0-related technologies, in addition to the traditional application forms, in selecting the candidates. But which one? At the time, the media craze about Second Life was already abating, and only the slowest of mainstream media still thought SL "cool" and "modern". Also, we wanted to avoid tech that was gimmicky and that would appeal only to a subset of our possible candidates - anything that is too reminiscent of computer games, like SL, would draw only a certain kind of crowd.
We finally decided on using YouTube prominently, mainly because it's perhaps one of the best examples of what Web 2.0 can be. It's very easy to use, which means it's much more democratic than more tech-head applications. Nowadays, many up-to-date mobile phones can record videos, so chances are an applicant's friend can film the two-minute video we asked for. Also, it's one thing to write an application form, answering questions like "How would you describe yourself as a (social, environmental, cultural, political) activist?" or "What challenge would you set for the world leaders in Davos?" - having to talk to an audience (even if that audience, for the moment, is just a mate with a small video camera), in most cases in a language that isn't your mother tongue, and coming across as assertive, convincing and clear is a very different issue.
We received over 130 applications, and the same number of YouTube videos. Even though the requirement was, in theory at least, that the films weren't longer than two minutes, many of the applicants showed that they had more to say than could be covered in two minutes. Some chose a simple, direct style, talking to the camera in one uninterrupted take (reminiscent of Obama Barack's YouTube message to the American people). Others went for more elaborate, edited videos. All applicants had something to say, and they showed considerable conviction, and indeed courage, in exposing themselves to the selection team... who then had the task of going through the videos and choosing the sixty participants who would go to England in January 2008. Our task of selecting the final group was not easy - every single one of the applicants, every single one of the videos, was compelling in one way or another. But, alas, there's no way we could have invited 130 young people to England.
All blog categories sized by popularity:
Activism Africa Youth Summit 2009 CAPs (Community Action Programmes) Climate Dead Sea Forum 2009 Economy Education G-20 London Summit 2009 General Global Youth Summit 2009 Greenwich 2007 Guildford 2008 Guildford 2009 Human Rights News Partners Politics WEF Davos 2008 WEF Davos 2009
21 December 2007
wooow thats sooo interesting.. i didnt realize how complicated the process was and how much hard work it took until now….
thanks for all of this ,, for giving us all a chance to go, meet eachother and learn .. !!
*** EXtremlY eXcited about the Forum ***
21 December 2007
That is such a great way to select participants! You can tell a lot more about a young person when you can see and hear them. It is a great idea!
Thank you for your hard work and watching all of those videos.
21 December 2007
Incredible!.. I was really curious about how hard was it to pick the 60 participants and watching 130 videos!.
.
Thank you very much for your efforts
21 December 2007
I deeply impressed by the considerable effort and hard work you put in in the selection process. Thanks a million for your time. It feels good to belong to the 60 that were finally selected. CONGRATULATIONS to the rest. I look forward to meeting you, sharing your experiences and ofcourse learning from you.
22 December 2007
THANK YOU
!!
22 December 2007
Thank you for spending 6, 5 hours on listening to all of us. I can see from here, by speaking to my fellow delegates that u made a tremendous job. Thanks once again. 23 days to go
23 December 2007
Very nice idea of choosing participants via YouTube videos. I never liked paper applications from which only people who can express themselves adequately in writing are selected. Besides, this is going to be a forum, face to face, so this is why it was brilliant that you chose the video application, to see how well we can talk and think on our feet.
I was one of those who chose the single-take news-report-like video. In the end it made me proud, although I had to admit, it took some time to do so.
Thank you for you time you allocated in watching and re-watching our videos! See you in Greenwich!
PS: I love the website!
2 January 2008
Whoa! I guess the selection must have been some job. Anyway this is really a great oppurtunity for anyone. Reacting with students from over 60 countries is really going to be great! Looking forward for the forum!
2 January 2008
In Argentina the application process was different. The pre-selected candidates were interviewed and one was chosen among those. I think it was better because in this way more people was able to enroll.
Although I am not among the 60, this experience helped me to get more involved. I am now helping some organisations with spanish-english translations and looking forward to finding more ways to help.
To the lucky 60, good luck and keep in touch.
http://www.idealists.org
http://www.volunteermatch.org
6 January 2008
More interesting websites:
http://www.porloschicos.com/PorLosChicos.NET/index_english.htm
http://www.thehungersite.com
http://www.everyclick.com
http://www.goodsearch.com
The last two are search engines. For every search, some money is donated to the organization you choose.
Por Los Chicos and The Hunger Site donate money for every click.
It would be good if you could choose one of these sites and make it your homepage. It takes less than a minute a day.
I hope you find it useful