It’s time again for what’s become a springtime ritual at IT World Canada: Our Blogging Idol competition.
This is the third annual blogging challenge issued to our readers. Over a six-week period, contestants maintain blog entries along a number of technology themes, with a chance to win a $1,000 grand prize or valuable gift certificates.
Contestants will be given ideas and themes by the editors of ComputerWorld Canada, training on blogging best practices and continuous feedback on their contributions over the course of the six-week competition.
Past contestants and winners have continued to blog for IT World Canada, bring valuable insight and jumping-off points for discussion among our readers. They’ve also been profiled in print, online and in video.
This year’s judging panel includes John Pickett, IT World Canada vice-president and community advocate; Pedro Cardoso, the 2009 Blogging Idol grand prize winner; and Sean Moffitt, founder and chief evangelist for Toronto-based social media strategy consultancy Agent Wildfire.
Registration will offiically start March 8, 2010. After a “warm up” period of two weeks for bloggers to try out our platform, the contest kicks off on March 22. Don’t despair if you miss the kick-off; contestants can continue to register after the contest start date. Judging and prizes will be announced in May.
Some of the themes we’ll be addressing this year:
• The Mobile Revolution: The slate-style computers introduced in the last few months are fuelling a lot of buzz about a genuinely new category of mobile device. What functionality makes them different from laptops and smart phones? Are they better? How much will their use be affected by the rates set by wireless carriers? How will people actually use them?
• Defining The Cloud: There’s been a lot of hype about cloud computing, but for the most part, it’s been apps as a service and data storage. There’s more to the cloud than that. What’s the cloud’s role in other endeavours, for example, in the field of mobile applications, collaboration, etc. What is the cloud, really?
• Open Data: There’s a move afoot among governments to open their databases to the public for them to use and mash up as they see fit (myttc.ca is a good example). What are the access, security and privacy issues involved? How best can government deliver, and what should it deliver?
• Green Technology: One thing has become clear about green IT: It’s all about the money. Let’s investigate truly green technology, and its challenges and roles, not just green IT.
• Technology as a Social Enabler: We’ve examined this in past contests, but it’s still a relevant and interesting topic. What’s happening in technology that’s significant in terms of social justice, accessibility, political enablement, etc.?
• Cool Tech: What’s happening on the gadget front? Why are they cool? Why are they not? The useful and useless, the tame and the tight, fine and FAIL. There’s always something coming out to put in your pocket, so there should always be something to blog about.
Visit blogidol.ca for more details.
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Due to logistical difficulties, we’ve pushed back the date of the ComputerWorld Canada IT Leadership Awards. We’ll now be handing out the awards to Canada’s shining stars in information technology on Oct. 26.
The new deadline for applications is Aug. 11.
For more information, or to nominate a colleague in one of the six categories, visit itleadershipawards.com.
The awards are part of ComputerWorld Canada’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Visit our anniversary page. Test your knowledge of IT history and trivia with our biweekly quiz, and help us choose the most significant of the 25 top IT stories of the last 25 years.