This Blog has now moved to idebate.org/worlddebating - all future posts will be made there!

26 April 2008

Forensics Schools debate online this weekend

What is it?
A debate contest for high school students using written and oral argument. Sponsored by Bickel & Brewer Law Firm, New York University and major USA forensic organizations.The winner gets a $10,000 prize.

When is it?
See the semifinals and finals of a unique debate competition on Saturday, 26 April 2008.Semifinals #1 are at 9 AM Eastern Time USA (3 PM European consult for your time zone, basically USA Eastern is –4 GMT). Semifinal #2 at 10:45 AM Eastern Time USA, and the finals will be at 4 PM Eastern Time USA.

What is the topic?
“Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its AIDS/HIV public health assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Where is it happening?
New York University Law School, New York, New York.After over 100 schools competed in the written part of the contest, the top four teams have been flown to New York for the oral part of the contest.

Who is debating?
Semifinal #1:Colleyville Heritage High School, Colleyville, TexasVs.Wellington High School, Village of Wellington, Florida
Semifinal #2:Bellaire High School, Bellaire, TexasVs.Kahuku High & Intermediate School, Kahuku, Hawaii

Who is judging?
Semifinals: Mr. Will Baker, Director of Debate, New York University and CEO, Impact Coalition Mr. Marshall Donat, Assoc. General Counsel, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Mr. Luke McGrath, Partner, Bickel & Brewer Mr. Alfred “Tuna” Snider, Professor of Forensics, University of Vermont Ms. Pam Spiliadis, Executive Director, Baltimore Urban Debate League

Finals: Mr. William A. Brewer III, Partner, Bickel & Brewer Mr. Lenny Gail, Chairman of the Board, National Assoc. of Urban Debate Leagues Hon. John G. Koeltl, U.S. District Judge (SDNY) Mr. Sheldon Prentice Mr. John Sexton, President, New York University Ms. Melissa Maxcy Wade, Director of Forensics, Emory University Mr. Scott Wunn, Executive Director, National Forensic League

How can you watch it?
Go to http://nppf.net/
Click on the link for the video feed, provided by Debate Central (http://debate.uvm.edu), the World Debate Institute (http://debate.uvm.edu/wdi) and the University of Vermont (http://www.uvm.edu).You must have the newest version of QuickTime installed on your computer. Go to http://www.apple.com/downloads/ for this free download.

24 April 2008

DCAs for Monash Australs 2009 Bid

Monash have announced their adjudication team for their bid to host Australs in 2009.

From australs list

The Monash Association of Debaters is pleased to announce that Leloy Claudio, Sayeqa Islam and Jason Jarvis will be the Deputy Chief Adjudicators of Monash Australs 2009. They join Jacob Clifton to form an incredibly experienced, successful and approachable adjudication team for the tournament. The adjudication core are deeply committed to the development of debating, and in addition to topic selection and adjudicator allocation will be bringing their wealth of skills to bear to produce high quality training materials and workshops in the lead up to the tournament.

Leloy Claudio
Leloy has an outstanding record of debating success at Australs having broken at the previous four Australasian Championships whilst debating for Ateneo de Manila University (Phillipines.) A Grand-Finalist at UQ Australs in 2005, Leloy was a top 10 speaker at both UT Mara and Vic Wellington Australs. As well as enjoying Australs success he is a 3 time Asian Champion and has broken twice at the World University Debating Championships. Leloy has crucial experience in ensuring fair and effective processes for the tournament, serving as the Chief Adjudicator of the 2006 Phillipine National Championship and the Tournament Director of Ateneo Australs 2008.

Sayeqa Islam
Sayeqa is the reigning best speaker in Australasia based on her success at UiTM Australs, where she was also Runner Up and best speaker of the Grand Final. In the British Parliamentary format Sayeqa won the Cambridge IV and was a finalist at the Oxford IV and Australian Women's BP Championships, where she was the best speaker for 2007. Sayeqa also has extensive experience as a coach and administrator, coaching the 2005 New Zealand Schools Debating team and serving as the Presdient of the Victoria University debating society in 2004. Sayeqa was awarded Victoria University Sportsperson of the year for her achievements in debating.

Jason Jarvis
Jason brings a wealth of adjudication and coaching experience to our DCA team. He has judged the finals of numerous Australs and Worlds and has been the Chief Adjudicator of a number of tournaments including the 14th All Asian Debate Championship in Korea in 2007 and the Northeast Asian Open in 2003, 2004 and 2005, which he founded. He was also a Deputy Chief Adjudicator of the Asian University Debate Championship in Singapore in 2005 and the 15th All Asian Debate Championship in Dhaka in Bangladesh this year. Jason has been a key figure in the development of debate throughout North Asia. He is a Professor at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management and is the director of the Asian Debate Institute, which has taught debating to hundreds of university and school students over the last 5 years.

debatewise launched

A new debate research website debatewise has been launched. Unlike debatabase or Debatepedia this one largely relies on contributions from users in the form of a forum debate on the subject. To get things going and help build up their database the site is running a competition to win prizes such as a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPod which will be awarded based on contributions.

Here is an extract from the mail announcing the launch on britishdebate:

Dear all,
I've just launched my site,
www.debatewise.com. Our aim is to become the Wikipedia for debate and we work in a similar way: anyone can start a debate and anyone can edit a debate. The idea being that by allowing different proponents of an argument to collaborate, a definitive case will eventually emerge.

Our aim is to give people undecided about an issue the information they need to make up their mind. So we present the For arguments alongside the Against arguments and list them point by point. We also give people the ability to vote on the overall debate and on individual points. This gives visitors an indication of where the land lies and importantly, it provides debaters with feedback about how to win arguments. Imagine if a change in the phrasing sees the vote percentage shift from 40/60 to 55/45. There's some really useful information there about what persuaded people to your side.

To launch the site and seed it with good quality debates I have put together a competition to win a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPod. The winning debates will be chosen by a panel including Samir Deger-Sen and John Leader-Maynard. Debates can be on any subject under the sun and the competition runs until the 14th May.

If you've already entered, congratulations and don't forget to get people editing and voting on your debate. If you haven't entered, you probably should. There's a really good chance of winning, especially for experienced debaters such as yourselves. And there's even a Zen prize for the person who most contributes to the debates of others.

More information can be found at www.debatewise.com/competition. Though I'd be delighted to answer any questions you may have about the competition here.
Thanks and good luck.
Dave

Durham Open

This year's Durham Open takes place on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th June, just two weeks before Euros.

We are hoping that this competition can act as a chance for last-minute practice before Tallinn.

All teams are now invited to register for the Open. We are not setting a team cap for the moment, HOWEVER if demand is greater than the number ofteams we can accommodate, those requesting registration by email first will be given priority. It's a bit like Euros reg., but less hi-tech.

Registration will be £45 per team, with no charge for judges.

We're not going to insist on n-1, particularly because we're expectingcomposites to enter the Open, but this is also a great opportunity for alljudges going to Euros, so we'd encourage anyone doing so to come along.

We'll be running 5 rounds, breaking to semis.

Timetable and other relevant info. will follow soon.

source: Britishdebate

23 April 2008

Loyola Marymont win Paris IV

The Loyola Marymount team of Kevin Kiley and JJ Rodriguez won the 2008 Paris IV. They won the final on a 4-1 split over the second Hybrid team of Ard WArd & Bob Nimmo (no news on the other 2 teams in the final)

The motion for the final was "TTHB western political leaders should boycott the olympics in Beijing".

21 April 2008

Stanford Win APDA nationals

Michael Baer & Anish Mitra from Stanford have won the 2008 American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) National Championships.


Michael Baer (Stanford) was also the top speaker at Nationals

The Yale team of Josh Bone and Andrew Rohrbach were the team of the year (based on results from tournaments throughout the year) while Andy Hill (William & Mary) was Speaker of the Year and picked up the Chris Pocarco award. Zayn Siddique (Princeton) was Novice of the year.

Source apdawiki

Debating News from Botswana

The National Schools Debating Team comprising five top speakers from schools around Botswana will compete at this year’s African Schools Debating Championships (ASDC).

The annual African Schools Debating Championships (ASDC) is to be hosted by St John's College, Johannesburg, from 28 April to 3 May 2008. The tournament will bring together teams from 13 African countries, from as far a field as Uganda and Kenya, to compete for the title of African Champions. In addition, the tournament incorporates the South African Debating Invitational in which 17 of South Africa's top debating schools, both public and private, will compete for the ASDC Schools Cup.

The five finalists who will represent Botswana at the tournament are Bonolo Magowe and Antonette Ncube both of Ledumang Secondary School, Ruth Mulenga and Wedu Mokobi both from the Islamic Al Nur Schools and Bakang Phokoletso of Gaborone Secondary School. The National Schools Debating Team is coached by Justice Motlhabani who is assisted by Kevin Segadimo. Evans Chipambo of AL- Nur is the official Botswana Adjudicator.

The competition will see thought-provoking debates between the teams on topics such as the funding of political parties and whether education should be locally or nationally controlled. The tournament aims to develop participants’ debating skills, enhance critical thinking, independent research skills, communication skills and general leadership skills. The students will amongst other things participate in formal training workshops, competitive debating and interactive forums with leaders in business, civil society and government.

It will also feature many high-profile guest speakers such as Dr Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of the South African Communist Party. The speakers will discuss issues including African unity, the transformation of tertiary education institutions and the relationship between human rights and South Africa's foreign policy.

The intensive competition requires each country to take part in five preliminary debates over four days. The highest-rated teams go forward to knockout rounds, with the African champions ultimately named at a Grand Final. The Grand finals of the 2008 Championship will be held at the Pan African Parliament in Midrand. The inaugural African Schools Debating Championships was won by South Africa in May 2007.


More information on the tournament is available at: africa.debate.org.za.

20 April 2008

All Asians update

Dear All,
We, the OrgCom of NSU All Asians draw your attention to some important issues.

1. We have already forwarded the Names and the Passport Numbers of the participants who have already mailed us, to ‘Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh’ so that your Visa process gets easier. Participants, who haven’t sent their names and passport numbers, please send them by 25th of April, 2008. Otherwise, we may not be able to assist you regarding the Visa procedure.

2. Adjudicators, please send your CVs. The deadline of the CV submission has been extended to 25th of April,2008. We need all the CVs to ensure the quality of adjudication in our tournament. The CV form is again attached with this mail. Thanks to all of them who have already mailed their CVs.

3. Please fill your Detail "participant information" form (Institution wise) by 30th of April. We need all the names to prepare our database and tab. The form has been attached with this mail as well.

Thank you. Hope to meet you soon in Bangladesh.
Sinha Humayun
Assistant Chief Adjudicator
NSU ALL ASIANS 2008

EUDC re-open registration

Dear debaters,

EUDC 2008 Tallinn team has news for you. We are going to OPEN REGISTRATION for Euros for the VERY LAST TIME. Registration will open on Monday, 21 April, at 12:00 GMT as usual.

We had to delete several teams after payment deadline for Phase 2 passed and there was only one team in the waiting list, so we are now making an open call to fill the remaining available places. There are 9 team places available at the moment, but this number may increase (due to cancellations etc).

It is possible to register adjudicators only if required by the n-1 rule (if you have for ex. 2 teams and 1 judge registered now, you will need to register another judge together with your 3rd team).

Registration will be open for all institutions that have less than 3 teams registered by now. This basically means that the only restrictions this time are the institutional team cap of 3 and the n-1 adjudicator rule. (At the end of the day of course also the general team cap of 160.) If your institution has no teams registered so far, it is possible to register up to 3 teams, if you have 1 team in, then you can add up to 2 more etc.

All new registrations will go directly to the waiting list at first. The main list is closed, but we will then start to upgrade the first registered teams from the waiting list. We can only upgrade as many teams as we have places available, so if you get on the waiting list, this does not mean that you are guaranteed a place at the tournament. Unfortunately.

After filling in the registration form at our website http://www.eudc2008.eu/, you will receive an invoice, but do not pay it at once! You have to pay the participation fee only after you have been upgraded into the main list and have received an e-mail from our Registrations Coordinator Liina. She will inform you by e-mail if your team (and judge) has a place in the main list and you will then have 10 days to make the payment. Therefore please also make sure you enter a correct remitter's e-mail address, so we can contact you.

And that's it. If you have not registered before, then to become familiar with the registration process please read our website's Registration section, FAQ's section and posts under Info for Participants.

Finally, we are still waiting for e-mails from participants that do not have passwords yet. If you registered as x's and y's, we need the names of debaters (and judges) and their e-mail addresses in order to send them new passwords. Please contact Maarja at info@... to receive your password. We also remind you that the Estonian Air promotional code that gives you a 10% discount on plane tickets to Tallinn is available after you log in to the website.

Good luck to everyone with registration.

Kind regards,

EUDC 2008 Tallinn team