EDUCATING YOUR MP

A COMPETITION!

Faith in Government's ability to provide timely and accurate information to those who serve and protect us has been seriously undermined by of scandals from Victoria Climbie through Ian Huntley to Baby Peter.  Publicity of recent data losses has led to a crisis in confidence that government can keep our personal information secure. 

To address this EURIM has launched a competition challenging the UK e-media community to get the underlying issues across much more effectively to MPs and policy makers.

Parliamentarians and policy makers need succinct, clear, balanced material to help them create robust policies and laws.  Nowhere is this more needed than with regard to Information Governance - where wrong data can be as lethal as leaked data and today's hilarious posting on YouTube can be tomorrow's career breaker.

We believe that the UK media industry has the creative ability to convey complex messages to our politicians. This includes the next generation of media professionals, who are currently students at colleges and universities.  All are welcome to enter the competition. WE have done OUR best, can YOU do better?

EURIM's working group has attempted to capture the basic principles of Information Governance in a PowerPoint Presentation, with accompanying speaking notes and a one-page summary of points.  We realise this primitive approach may not inspire our target audience to act on the messages.  But it provides a start for you to demonstrate your skills in conveying these messages in an innovative, eye-catching and professional way.

The aim of the competition is to produce 3 minutes of material that gives a clear vision of the issues politicians and policy makers need to balance when putting forward new policies that depend on the timely use of accurate information.  It should also be relevant to attempts to rectify the quality and security problems that have brought about a crisis of confidence in current systems.

Instructions for entrants
The target length for entries is 3 minutes, but entries up to 4 minutes in duration will be accepted.

Entries are permitted using any freely and readily available media formats, viewable using Internet browsers on PCs or mobile devices. Please remember that accessibility to the messages is crucial, therefore if the media format you use requires downloading additional codecs or plugins this may render your entry inaccessible to the target audience of time poor politicians.

The material linked in the competition invitation above represents EURIM's Basic Principles working group's best attempt at conveying these messages.  Your job is to improve on this - not to regurgitate what we have produced.  What the judges will be looking for is the ability of entries to convey these messages in an eye catching, clear way.

Judges and judging criteria
The competition will use judges from the target audience: parliamentarians and those planning to stand in the next general election. 

The criteria to be used in judging entries are:

• Balance and accuracy of content.

• Impact on target audience.

• Creativity.

• Technical competence.

Prizes
A certificate will be awarded to the entry which best meets each of the above criteria. The overall winner will receive a cash prize of £1000 and will be the entry that addresses all the criteria most effectively.

All who enter will have the prize of publicity: your material seen by an audience of parliamentarians, candidates, policy makers and those seeking to influence them as well as being posted on the EURIM website.

This is a great opportunity to stand-out from the crowd by demonstrating your prowess in producing material on a topic that is of serious interest to many future media, computing and communications industry employers.  Your CV will be seriously enhanced!

The deadline for entries has been extended to midday 10th March 2010. Judging will take place immediately after that. Those shortlisted will be contacted during 11th/12th March and will be invited to attend the awards event on 22nd March at 14.00 in The House of Commons. Reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed for those shortlisted (to be announced on the afternoon of 11th March), based, for example on rail tickets being purchased in advance.

If you wish to enter the competition, please contact eurim@eurim.org.

Entries should be submitted using email; a file-sharing website (e.g. YouSendit: http://www.yousendit.com/); or by posting in a downloadable format to a website and supplying the url). Please contact Verity Vigars at: eurim@eurim.org or Telephone 0844 772 2575 to discuss alternatives.

For more information on competition requirements or Information Governance please contact Stephen Darvill, Industry Chair of EURIM’s Information Governance Group at: stephen.darvill@logica.com or 07785 280100.

More Information:

The Audit Commission (2009) “Nothing but the Truth”
Information Governance Map
EURIM Information Governance Working Groups
Philip Virgo's blog
The Information Commissioner’s Office

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