DW’s blog and social media awards has relaunched its website with a new look and a new logo. The Bobs – Best of online activism – has been recognizing the best independent bloggers and citizen journalists since 2004 and is just one way that DW contributes to promoting freedom of expression and the upholding of human rights around the world. This year, the contest has added three additional languages – Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian – opening the contest’s categories to a total of 14 languages.

Find out more at thebobs.com

Guido Baumhauer, DW’s Director of Distribution, recently took time for a Q&A with the EBU, covering everything from the future of media to the Hunger Games and Jane Fonda. Onw of his insights has to do with using social media outside of the office:

“It is redefining how we all receive and redistribute our information and how we communicate. As a communication platform and information channel, social media provides a great opportunity for people to find and share information and news from many reliable sources.

I love this new freedom of the former “recipient” – when something big happens, social media channels are often faster than traditional sources and I rely on my smartphone. But to be honest, I don’t need to share pictures of my dinner on Facebook and Twitter via Instagram – I concentrate on eating it instead.”

Read the whole interview here.

Earlier this month, the Facebook page of telenovela Jojo Sucht das Glück and multimedia project Destination Europe won top prizes in their respective genres. Jojo Sucht das Glück won a bronze E Learning Award in an international competition hosted by London-based Bizmedia. Destination Europe won an International Media Excellence Award (the AIBs) from the Association for International Broadcasting, also based in the UK.

The E Learning Awards are one of the most prestigious competitions in the industry. DW’s Esther Weingarten accepted the bronze for “Best use of social media for learning” in London.

The Facebook page for Jojo Sucht das Glück not only features supplementary info about weekly episodes. It is also a forum for fans to directly interact with the star of the show and practice their German. Users have even made fan videos about the telenovela and uploaded them to YouTube.

The AIBs honor excellence in international broadcasting, picking winners from entrants all over the world. DW’s Felix Steiner and Klaus Dahmann accepted the award for Destination Europe at a London ceremony.

The Association for International Broadcasting praised the project for its “first-rate multilingual, multi-platform approach, with extensive use of social media to provide real, relevant information to those seeking a better life in Europe.”

DW Akademie is testing an innovative new training format for bloggers and journalists in North Africa based on the MOOC concept (massive open online course). The Open Media Summit (OMS) is an interactive online course combining e-learning and social media, which is an open-access, interactive, online platform where educational resources are distributed through live streaming, discussion forums and other online resources. The course is free and open to everyone. The only prerequisites are English and Arabic language skills and a computer or laptop with an Internet connection.

More than 300 citizen journalists from North Africa are testing the new learning format, which offers a virtual campus. Participants can meet in online classrooms, access training resources and take part in live stream sessions. The website shows how many people are online and the countries they’re from. This is part of the concept behind open exchange and interactive learning.

Upcoming topics on the course agenda include dealing responsibly with online sources, data-driven journalism and Internet censorship. A total of six live video sessions will feature guest experts from North Africa. The course is open to all those interested, and newcomers are welcome.

Blogging and social activism were on the agenda last night when Deutsche Welle (DW) presented prizes to the winners of its international blog awards, The Bobs. “Best Blog” went to Iranian journalist and blogger Arash Sigarchi, and his blog Window of Anguish.  “When it comes to freedom, I believe the situation has worsened since I left Iran in 2008,” said Sigarchi, who reports in Persian and English about social and political topics in his homeland, especially about the state of human rights.

You can find a wrap-up of the entire event in the press release.