ictQATAR’s ICT Skills Development Manager Reem Al-Mansoori encourages youth in Qatar to take part in the upcoming World Summit Youth Awards in this guest post.

Social media, blogs, vlogs, mobile applications and websites. We’re using them all day, every day in Qatar. Are you interested in using these digital platforms to make a difference in the world?

If yes, here’s your chance to show how digital content can be used to tackle major world issues such as fighting discrimination, eradicating hunger or protecting the environment.

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is an annual award that brings together young creators of e-content that use the Internet, mobile phones or other digital media advance the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

If you are currently doing innovative work through digital media to advance the UN Goals and you are under 30, you should consider entering the awards at www.youthaward.org. There are six categories for this year’s awards:

• Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease
• Education for All
• Power 2 Women
• Create your Culture
• Go Green
• Pursue the Truth

The deadline for registration is July 15^th 2011, so you’ll have to act quickly to submit your new media project.

An international jury comprised of young ICT experts will evaluate the projects and will pick three winners and two runners -up for each category.

If you’re one of the lucky winners of a WSYA, you’ll be invited to the WSYA 2011 Winners’ Event in Skopje, Macedonia. You’ll also get the chance to present your project on a world stage, attend workshops, meet new friends and network with the best of ICT world.

Winners of the 2010 WSYA in New York

This is a great opportunity for young e-content creators in Qatar to showcase their work and gain access the WSYA network. The Youth Award network will you offer the chance to develop your projects, refine your business plan and even find sponsors on an international scale.

For more information about World Summit Awards or to see some examples from last years’ winning projects, visit www.youthaward.org. You can also follow ictQATAR’s TumuhaTEC initiative on Twitter for frequent updates @TumuhaTEC.

Outside.In totally gets the importance of blogs in providing valuable local content.  The site, which is attracting a large number of investors and has just linked up with CNN to provide content for its website, creates a newsfeed for local communities, aggregating information from traditional media and the blogosphere. Outside.In currently has more than 4,000 bloggers covering more than 50,000 neighborhoods across the US (sadly nothing international yet).

The founder of Outside.In, Mark Jospheson, recently did an interview for Econsultancy’s blog. The most interesting comment he made was about how the local news market is now really an ecosystem. His point is that bloggers are no longer “outside” news sources, but instead are an integral part of the media market. If I were a journalist, this would make me nervous.

The Outside.In model seems like one that has great potential for growth worldwide. As more “writers” share their insights online, the quality of non-professional content has skyrocketed. I think this is especially in terms of local news and very specialized topics – like my friend’s cooking blog. Qatar Living does a solid job of sharing local information in a forum format, but there is certainly room for more in-depth insight from the blogosphere – if they are allowed to be open and honest.