OPEN UP! Video Contest to Showcase Students Call for Open Access

Entries invited for the 4th Annual Sparky Awards

Entries must be received by 12AM Eastern time on May 27, 2011

"The importance of the student stake in opening up access to scholarly research will be highlighted in Open Up! – the fourth installment of the annual Sparky Awards student video contest. Calling on students to articulate their views in a two-minute video, the contest has been embraced by campuses all over the world and has inspired imaginative expressions of student support for the potential of Open Access to foster creativity, innovation, and problem solving."

Open Up! calls on students to let the world know they support Open Access and to say why. This year, entries are invited to four categories:

  1. Animation – Drop into the media lab and master that illustration software!
  2. Speech – Just say how it is. Skip the fancy editing and use your 120 seconds to tell campus viewers in your own eloquent words why Open Access matters to you.
  3. Remix – Mix it up. Re-use video, music, images and remix with your own content to create your unique vision of the importance of Open Access. Content must be re-used legally.
  4. People’s Choice – The People choose! Sparky Award entries are opened up for public vote.

Winners will receive an iPad, iPhone, or iPod and a fabulous "Sparky Award" statuette. The award-winning videos will be announced in conjunction with the American Library Association Annual Conference and a Campus MovieFest Regional Finale, and will be widely publicized by the sponsoring organizations at public events across North America throughout the year.

The Sparky Awards are organized by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, who promote the universal benefits of sharing ideas of all kinds. Read the Press release. Take a look at past years’ winners.