Indian techie wins US State Dept global online video contest

Held by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA),the contest was co-sponsored by the Adobe Youth Voices initiative of the Adobe Foundation.

The other three winners of this global contest are Jose Vinícius Reis Gouveia (16) from Brazil for his video entitled ‘Human Colours’,Grant Jirka (14) of Columbus for ‘Winning Team’ and Tim Peters (22) of Illinois for ‘A Friend in Nanjing’.

While the international winners will receive a two-week all-expenses-paid exchange programme to the US,the American winners will receive the same to an overseas destination. They will receive multi-media software provided by the Adobe Foundation.

According to the information available on the State Department website,Thangaraj’s hobbies include composing music,playing the guitar and keyboard. He has recorded instrumental albums and is currently working on a gospel album.

Thangaraj enjoys creating recordings and videos that impact people. In future,he wishes to start his own media production company.

The contest judges were musician,performer and author Toni Blackman; actress and Founder of the Cancer Schmancer Movement Fran Drescher; graphic artist Milton Glaser; President of the Egyptian Cultural Civic Education Organization Raafat Khalid; and Founder and former Co-Chairman of New Line Cinema and Principal Unique Features Bob Shaye.

The initiative was launched by ECA on December 1,2008,to encourage cross-cultural community building and mutual understanding via the Web and social media platforms and to attract new members to the groundbreaking ‘ExchangesConnect’ social networking site.

Since its launch in October 2008,’ExchangesConnect’ has drawn over 8,400 members from 170 countries.