Video: Call for submissions in Democracy Now Challenge · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

Two months ago, we published the story of the winners of the 2009 Democracy Now Challenge with their videos telling the world what Democracy means for them. Currently these same winners are on a two week trip around the USA, visiting Washington, New York and Hollywood, and in the meantime, the Secretary of State has already announced the 2010 Democracy Now Video Contest.
The rules are very similar to last year's. Basically, you should enter a video that's less than 3 minutes long which completes the phrase “Democracy is…”. It should either be in English or have English subtitles, and it can be any style: animated or live action, a documentary or fiction. The deadline for submitting entries is January 31st, 2010; after which a selection process will take place including community voting until 6 contestants from 6 different geographical regions are chosen, and they will be the ones to travel to the USA to speak with people from government and media.
Here is the video they have made to promote the contest:
The contest is a collaboration between YouTube, the State Department and other partners, and more details about specifics to be considered before submitting the video can be found on the State Department's YouTube channel by clicking on Important Details.
On the YouTube blog you can view a clip from the 2009 winners’ television appearance, and if you wish to know a bit more about the winners, 4 of them submitted a video portrait of themselves.
Aissa Peñafiel from the Philippines:
Rodin Hamidi from Iran:
Anna Israel from Brazil:
and Lukasz Szozda from Poland:
Need inspiration to participate? Why not take a look at the 2009 winning entries?