Contributor guidelines

Writing for udeco.org

Latest News on udeco.org carries what the coalition and its partners do: the rooms convened, the agreements signed, the programmes run, and what they change. This page is the template every piece follows and the process it goes through. Read it once; the form repeats the essentials.

Title: 120characters max
Excerpt: 280characters max
Body: 120words min
Categories: 5per piece max
Facts: 8per piece max

Who can write

Organisations with a memorandum of understanding with UDECO. Register with your work email and the name of your organisation as it should be credited. The UDECO editorial team approves every account by hand, usually within a few working days, and you will be able to sign in once that is done.

How a piece gets published

1
Draft
You write. Only you can see it. Save as often as you like.
2
Submit
When the form says it is ready, submit it. It goes to the editorial team.
3
Review
The editors check it against these guidelines. They may publish it as it is, or return it with a note.
4
Published
It is live on udeco.org, credited to your organisation, filed under its categories.

Each piece carries one of four indicators so you always know where it is:

Draft
Only you can see this. Submit it when it is ready.
In review
With the UDECO editorial team. Withdraw it to keep editing.
Published
Live on udeco.org.
Denied
Returned by the editors. Read the note, edit, and resubmit.

A piece in review cannot be edited; withdraw it to draft if you need to change something. A denied piece can be edited and resubmitted as many times as it takes. Once published, changes go through the editorial team at hello@udeco.org.

The template

Every piece has the same parts, in this order. The form walks through them.

Part 1 of 5

The card

Title: A sentence that says what happened, under 120 characters. The coalition signs its first corridor MOU in Kuala Lumpur, not MOU signing: KL update.
Dateline: The date of the event or announcement, not the day you wrote it, and where it happened: TEIZA HQ, Kuala Lumpur.
Excerpt: One or two sentences, under 280 characters. This is the whole card; make it earn the click.
Lead image: Landscape, at least 1600px wide, under 8MB, with a line of alt text describing it. You must hold the right to publish it. People in it should know they are being photographed for publication.

Part 2 of 5

The facts

Up to 8 label and value pairs that become the panel beside the headline. Use the labels the site already uses where they fit:

Date
Venue
City
Convened by
Format
In context of

Part 4 of 5

The article

Standfirst: The sentence under the headline: who, what, where, and why it matters.
Body: At least 120 words, in blocks. Open with the news. Then the context: why this, why here, why now. Close with what changes next. Use headings when a piece runs past five paragraphs, a pull quote when someone said it better than you can paraphrase, and a list when the items really are a list.
Images in the body: Need alt text that describes them for someone who cannot see them. A caption is optional; a credit is expected when the photograph is not yours.

Part 5 of 5

Sources and links

Sources: If the piece draws on reporting elsewhere, credit it. Sources render as “Reported by”, taking the publication from after the dash, so label them Headline - Publication.
Links: Footer buttons are for one clear next step: a registration page, the full report, a partner’s site.

House rules

01
Public copy only. No programme costs, sponsorship mechanics, accommodation grades, unconfirmed names or internal logistics.
02
Name people only with their agreement. Quote them only as they said it.
03
Write in plain English, in the third person, in the past tense for what happened and the present for what is. British spelling.
04
UDECO is the United Digital Economy Coalition; write it out on first use. The six event formats are Conference, Conclave, Catalyst, Convivium, Confab and Fellowship; write them with a capital.
05
One piece, one thing. If a day had two announcements, that is two pieces.
06
The editors may edit. Light editing for house style happens without a note. Anything that changes meaning comes back to you.