Technology and Global Development
15-502
Spring 2009
Campaign Assignment
Assigned:
January 27, 2009
Topic Choice Due:
In class, February 3, 2009
Completed Campaign Due:
By the end of class, March 5, 2009
Assignment Objectives:
This is your first group assignment. The assignment is designed to introduce you to the
art of running an effective information campaign in the area of ICTD, and also to help
you to learn how to work effectively in a group. Both the group assignment and the topic
you choose for this assignment will impact your final project in this course as described
in the assignment section. This will also be your first exposure to assessment from
judges who are not a part of this course.
A reality in most ICTD projects is that teams need to work together to promote relevant
causes with a small budget and a small team for promoting their cause, recruiting
volunteers, and fundraising to support their work. This assignment builds on your
research and media assignments, and adds a group component and a new cause. The
objectives of this assignment are as follows:
1. To give you experience in designing and executing an awareness campaign for a
related cause.
2. To teach you the fundamentals of effectively working in a team.
3. To expose you to the experience of being assessed by an external panel of judges.
4. To teach you time and resource management in the context of designing and
executing an effective awareness campaign.
5. To give you the opportunity to make a difference to a very real and current
problem/cause in ICTD by raising awareness on campus.
Assignment:
This assignment builds on your first two assignments in this course – the research and
media assignments. As part of the TechBridgeWorld (www.techbridgeworld.org) group
at Carnegie Mellon University, your team is assigned the task of designing and executing
an awareness campaign for one of the projects to be undertaken in the upcoming iSTEP
summer program (http://www.techbridgeworld.org/istep/).
Your first task as a group will be to choose one of the three iSTEP projects for 2009 and
identify the topic/cause you will be promoting in your campaign. Please note that you
will build on your work in this assignment for your final project – this means that the
topic you choose for your campaign assignment will also be the topic you work towards
designing a solution for in your final project. So please make your choice of topics
keeping this in mind. We recommend you learn more about the “One” campaign
spearheaded by Bono as a good example for an ongoing global campaign relevant to
Africa (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bono_s_call_to_action_for_africa.html). We
hope this campaign inspires yours ☺
You can learn about the three choices for your topic by reading the information on the
iSTEP web page and by following up on further questions with TechBridgeWorld staff
members Ermine Teves (eteves@cs.cmu.edu), Sarah Belousov (sarahtbw@cs.cmu.edu),
and Freddie Dias (mfdias@ri.cmu.edu). These staff members are located in Pittsburgh
and are very busy people so please make sure you use the time wisely. Also, all of your
questions via email should be sent to all three of them (you’ll have a better chance of
getting them answered quickly) and all of these emails should cc both of your instructors.
Obtaining information from remote sources is a very important skill in ICTD work so this
is not just a useless exercise. Learning to write professional emails and use others’ time
wisely is also an important skill that you will most likely use in the future.
A final crucial element of any campaign is to reach targeted key people. To give you
some experience with this, we have provided a list of 10 candidates to be external judges
for your campaign. It is your responsibility to invite these candidates to be your judges in
a way that they will accept ☺ You have to ensure that at least 5 of them attend your
campaign (this will mean careful scheduling) for sufficient time to fill out the evaluation
form that we will provide to them. You must also ensure that both instructors and the TA
can attend your campaign for a sufficient enough time to evaluate your work. The
following people are candidate external judges for your campaign:
1. Dean Charles Thorpe
2. Dr. Majd Sakr
3. Dr. Joe Mertz
4. Erik Helin
5. Kevin Lamb
6. Dr. Selma Limam-Mansar
7. Hatem Alismail
8. Hend Geddawy
9. Melissa Deschamps
10. Murry Evans
While the judges are important, remember that your audience is the entire Carnegie
Mellon Qatar campus community. Also remember that campaigns can have multiple
phases and avenues – for example, part of the campaign could be online and part of it can
be an event on campus. Be creative in your campaign design so that you can achieve your
campaign goals with the least expenditure of resources.
Collaboration:
You are encouraged to work together as a team on this assignment. Your instructors and
the TA are happy to help you with anything you need. We also suggest that you benefit
from the advice of faculty and staff who might be able to give you pointers and assistance
on elements such as design, IT, PR, and media relations. While you are not allowed to
get anyone else to organize this campaign for you, you are most welcome to recruit the
assistance of others; in fact, this is often a key element of success for any campaign.
Grading Criteria:
The campaign assignment will count towards 20% of your final grade and will be graded
out of 100 points as follows:
Scheduling to get required people present at campaign
10 points
Email communications with TBW staff
10 points
Sources of information and references
10 points
Effectiveness of team work
10 points
Overall strategy for campaign
20 points
Overall effectiveness of campaign
20 points
o Clarity of message
5 points
o Overall impact
5 points
o Credibility
5 points
o Overall organization
5 points
Evaluation by external judges
20 points
o Clarity of message
5 points
o Overall impact
5 points
o Credibility
5 points
o Overall organization
5 points
Note: Your individual grade will be your group grade adjusted to reflect your individual
contribution as assessed using the accompanying assessment form. Therefore it is critical
that you hand in your honestly completed assessment form to the instructors by midnight
on the due date for this assignment.
Helpful Hints:
1. Enjoy the assignment! ☺
2. When you are designing your campaign keep in mind your audience and the people at
the heart of the cause.
3. This is not a design class so our focus will be on the clarity, balance, and
effectiveness of your messaging strategy and execution.
4. Start early and take the time to learn as much as you can about your topic. If you
don’t believe in your cause, your campaign will not be effective.
5. Use the strengths of your team effectively. Divide the workload but discuss ideas and
strategies together before execution. This will ensure that the whole group learns all
aspects of the work, and that the campaign will benefit from everyone’s thinking.
6. Set intermediate deadlines for yourself and for the team so that you can realistically
complete this assignment in time.