The deadline for submission of projects for the WSA Contest is fast approaching. I would therefore urge you to read through the Press Release below and submit a project for the contest, by writing to DanielRStern@gmail.com with a description of your project.
Those who have submitted an entry for the WSA Contest will be given an opportunity to present a five-minute elevator pitch at Hive Colab on the afternoon of Friday 25 March, starting at 3 PM. A jury of experts will score the presentations and winning candidates in each of the eight categories will be sent to the WSA organizers for review.
Please read the Press Release below for details and the link for submitting your entry. You must have submitted your entry by Friday 18th March to be included in the Uganda WSA Contest Showcase programme.
With kind regards, Daniel Stern, WSA National Expert for Uganda
Press Release: Digital contents creators from UGANDA to compete with peers from all over the world!
Submit your WSA Entry Now
World Summit Award calls for entries
Salzburg, 7TH February 2011
You do not have to have big marketing machinery or millions to invest if you want to show the world that you have produced great web content, outstanding app or other superb digital media. You can now enter your product for the national pre-selection of the international World Summit Award. Five winners in each of the 8 categories will be able to present their product on a world stage and gain international standing and reputation. “The WSA offers a level playing field for developers from all 160 countries participating,” stresses WSA Chairman Peter A. Bruck. “That is what is special about the WSA. As a United Nations-mandated initiative, it showcases digital contents in different languages and designs from all over the world to show that great developments can come from any country, no matter what size.”
The World Summit Award is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best digital contents, held every two years. The national pre-selection in UGANDA is done through direct nomination by the national expert or through a competition or combination of both. Focal point to suggest projects to is Daniel Stern, Hive Colab, who serves as WSA National Expert for UGANDA.
Projects can be submitted to him until 25th March in eight categories:
1. e-Government & Institutions
2. e-Health & Environment
3. e-Learning & Education
4. e-Entertainment & Games
5. e-Culture & Heritage
6. e-Science & Technology
7. e-Business & Commerce
8. e-Inclusion & Participation
Categories
Health, politics, business, science, education, culture, but also entertainment — these are the most crucial social issues of every-day life for everybody. To further improve their knowledge in these fields, people from everywhere — rich or poor — must have access to quality e-Contents and applications. WSA Experts are asked to nominate from their country one product or application where ICTs are used to address the following issues which are grouped into 8 categories:
1. e-Government & Institutions
Delivering complete services in public administrations to individuals, businesses and organizations combined with organizational change in order to significantly improve services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies; fostering quality and efficiency of information exchange; empowering citizens and public services clients.
2. e-Health & Environment
Developing the client-centered model of health care where stakeholders collaborate, utilizing ICT, including internet technologies to manage health issues as well as the health care system; meeting the needs of citizens, patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare providers, as well as policy makers.
3. e-Learning & Education
Serving the needs of learners to acquire knowledge and skills for a complex and globalizing world; transforming schools, universities and other educational institutions through interactive, personalized and distributed learning resources; creating active e-learning communities and target models and solutions for corporate training as well as life-long learning.
4. e-Entertainment & Games
Supplying digitized entertainment products and services; entertaining the user in this world’s variety of languages and its cultural diversity; supporting movement from one-way to two-way, from single to multiple players, interactive entertainment and the synergy between analog and digital platforms.
5. e-Culture & Heritage
Preserving and presenting cultural heritage in line with the challenges of the future; demonstrating valuable cultural assets clearly and informatively using state-of-the-art technology; developing the diversity of cultures and sub-cultures and the multilingual nature of societies.
6. e-Science & Technology
Fostering global collaboration in key areas of science, and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it; providing measures to promote and demonstrate scientific processes and make them accessible to citizens; scientific projects articulated through new media.
7. e-Business & Commerce
Support and optimization of business processes; creation of new business models in e-commerce and m-commerce, business to business, business to consumers, internet security and other areas; supporting SMEs on the marketplace; using ICTs for buying and selling as well as servicing customers and collaborating with business partners.4
8. e-Inclusion & Participation
Measures supporting integration of the global information society; bringing least developed countries into the knowledge society; reducing “digital divides” between technology-empowered and technology-excluded communities and groups such as rural areas and women; bridging society and strengthening social and political participation of individuals and groups through ICTs.
Daniel Stern, who sits on the Board of Directors for Hive Colab, calls on people of UGANDA to suggest their best current projects for the international WSA competition: UGANDA needs to show that it can compete on a global level; UGANDA has developed applications that are being used elsewhere in Africa, and that offer prospects for being adopted internationally. A Ugandan took the Mobile Monday Summit Peer Award for Base of the Pyramid category 2010.
After the nominations from all over the world are complete, an international jury will come together for a multiday-session to evaluate the submissions on the basis of content and creativity. Jury members come from all continents and have backgrounds in the creative industries, telecommunication, advertising, journalism and research, as well as in teaching. The jury also includes representatives of international organisations and partners in the ICT-for-development field.
Winners will have the chance to network with each other and meet other experts in the field of ICT at the WSA 2011 Winners event in fall.
About the WSA
The World Summit Award (WSA), organised by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) in Salzburg, was started in 2003 as part of the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications; to date more than 160 countries are actively involved. Through national pre-selections and contests and a global jury process, WSA demonstrates the local diversity and rich creativity of ICT use. WSA is a global hub for everyone who values the crucial importance of local content to make today’s information society more inclusive.
For further general information, go to www.wsis-award.org or contact wsa@icnm.net.
To contact Daniel Stern, WSA National Expert for UGANDA, send a mail to DanielRStern@gmail.com
