Few things about South by Southwest are more heartwarming than the Dewey Awards.
Simeon Oriko and Natalie Madeira Cofield
Named after the late digital activist and SXSW Interactive co-founder, Dewey Winburne, the prizes go to people around the world who help others through the Internet.
Now, you’d think that would too wide a field these days, since almost every nonprofit, NGO and charity has a digital strategy. Yet the backers of the Dewey Awards, overseen by SXSW’s calm-at-the-center-of-the storm Hugh Forrest,, find incredibly deserving winners, fly them to Austin for SXSW and hand them checks for $1,000.
That might not sound like a lot, but to folks working on a grassroots level, it’s a boon. From the looks on their faces and the tone of their short acceptance speeches at a St. David’s Episcopal Church hall, the honors were deeply appreciated.
Teresa Sansone Ferguson and Madhura Bhat
In separate but related Internet accessibility awards, Team Canada and Basic Semantics were cheered for work that allows those with disabilities to join the global conversation.
The actual Deweys went to:
Madhura Bhat of Washington, D.C. for her work with Health for America, using innovation and design to help communities across America.
Elizabeth Davidson of New York, N.Y. for ScriptEd, a group that trains tech pros to teach programming skills to need kids.
Arlene Ducao of Cambridge, Mass. for Open Infrared, which maps ecological features and risks through infrared satellite data.
Rey Faustino of San Francisco, Cal. for One Degree, which provides access to families for services to help them overcome poverty.
Gene Gurkoff ofNew York, N.Y. for Charity Miles, which uses a smartphone app that enables folks to earn money for charity by walking, running or biking.
Elena Lagoudi of Athens, Greece for taking her museum outreach skills and applying them to her home country in crisis.
Simeon Oriko of Nairobi, Kenya for the Kuyu Project that aims at digital literacy among African youths.
Amanda Quraishi of Austin for managing the web presence of the fabulous Mobile Loaves & Fishes, helping to lift the chronically homeless off the streets.
Ben Sawyer of Freeport, Maine for the Serious Games Initiative which turns gaming into a tool to aid social causes.
Rich Schwerdtfeger of Austin who leads the accessibility strategy for IBM’s software group and led an open-source, non-proprietary collaboration facilitating equal info access.
Incredibly inspiring!