World Summit Award, the unofficial blog

WSA Winners'Event Monterrey, Mexico (1)

2009-09-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

It is now more than two years that I met Ramon Alberto Garza in Venice, Italy. He is the founder and CEO of the publishing company Brainmedia in Mexico. He was in Venice in order to collect his WSA Award for an electronic magazine his company produces. He was caught by the combination of the new media competition in the framework of the World Summit on the Information Society. He threw up the idea to have the next WSA Award ceremony in Monterrey. And after two years it is happening in Monterrey, Mexico. (more)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Winners' list

2009-04-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today the Board of Directors of the World Summit Award and the convenors of the World Summit Award, among which the Austrian government have confirmed the winners and have offcially announced them. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Goodbye India

2009-04-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

The plane left Dehli in time and was on time in Vienna. After going through the ritual of checking in for a Schengen free traffic country, I boarded for Amsterdam. However there was a delay of roughly an hour because of fog in Amsterdam.

Left: 2003 Grand Jury Dubai; right: 2005 Grand Jury Bahrain

Left: 2007 Grand Jury Croatia; right: 2009 Grand Jury India

I had the time to think over the whole Grand Jury project. This was the fourth Grand Jury. Grand Juries were held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in 2003, Manama (Bahrain) in 2005, Brijuni (Croatia) in 2007 and New Delhi in (India) in 2009. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury -Day 8

2009-04-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Last night the last presentations of the panels were made. There was also the final voting for the five winners per category. It was a long ceremony, followed by writing up the laudations of the five winners per category for the catalogue. For the last day only one more task was left, at least for the people that were still there; in the meantime some people had left already to catch their plane home. The departure is never a clean goodbye, just like the start is always in phases. The last task consisted of three parts: the constituting of the Arab e-Content Awards, the jury distinctions and the final leg of the World Summit Youth Awards. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 7

2009-04-07T01:17:00.000-07:00

The Grand Jury deliberations are getting to the final listing of the five winners in each category. Today we still have four categories to go. And if you think that this will an hour per category, well you are wrong. Discussions take longer with sharp observations. But the final list of winners in each category will be complete today. All the voting will be done, and all the votes will be recorded in the minutes to be submitted to the board of the World Summit Award and to the convenors of the competition, amongst others the Austrian government. By now we have all the definitive statistics of the contest available. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 6

2009-04-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

Today the presentations of the eight nominee winners are presented. This is the finest part of the Grand Jury. Discussions about the products are held. Each panel of the eight panels makes a presentation with their nominee winners. And you can see the skills of the various jury members. Some presentations are matter of fact, but some have been embellished on a template and with pictures of the nominated sites. After every presentation there is time again for chatting with the jurors like Shinta Dhanuwardoyo from Indonesia and Beatriz Alonso Becerra from Cuba. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 5

2009-04-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today nothing much happens. The traffic outside the hotel is noisy with hooting ansd whistling. Inside the hotel compound all jury members are busy with the selection of their nominee list and they take their time for that. In the breaks this leads to interesting discussions on developments in the interactive media. It also gives a chance to get to know better the new jury members like Ehssan Riazi Esfehani, from Iran and Gbenga Sesan, from Nigeria. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 4

2009-04-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

After all the excitement of the trip to the tallest minaret in New Dehli and the first round, the eminent experts of the Grand Jury went into the second round. First they had to change from category. This is a typical ritual dance. Either you go one category forward or one backwards. Once this matter was settled, the eminent experts could start evaluating the 18 tot 20 entries of the shortlist. Their assignment now was to investigate the entries and compare them to each other, basically selecting 8 entries for the nominee list. The second round is quite different from the first round. In that first round jurors throw out the entries that they do not want to see anymore. In the second round the jurors look for the top quality in that category and nominate 8 entries for selection of the final 5 winners. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 3

2009-04-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today the jury kept working on getting a shortlist of 18 to 20 entries. With some 80 entries you have roughly 5 minutes to have a look at the documentation and sites. Yet the first impression is often a first indication. But with the WSA database system the jury members can see where they are, how many entries they have dome, how many entries have been done by more jurors and they can look at their own ranking of the entries. By the afternoon, most of the jurors had made their shortlist.

Later in the afternoon we were treated to a trip to one of the city’s heritage site, Qutb Minar, and a guarded bazaar.(More...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 2

2009-04-03T01:16:00.000-07:00

Today we start the 2009 WSA Grand Jury process, a six day exercise, in earnest. But first the eminent jury members will have to get to know each other. Of course, they have seen each other yesterday, but in every edition new jurors are invited. It is not easy to put together a jury as a jury should be balanced according to countries and continents, gender and age as well as to technology and social involvement. This time new jurors have come from Cuba, Canada, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Bahrain. With the jurors of earlier editions it looks like a good bunch of people. They introduce themselves and later the ‘older’ jurors follow. (more...)

2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 1

2009-04-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

I am in India, at last. It was a hectic trip. The flight was supposed to consist of two legs: from Amsterdam to Vienna and from Vienna to Dehli Airport. Why I had to fly through Vienna is still a puzzle, but the flight was arranged by a bureau. But as there was fog at Schiphol the flight to Vienna was cancelled and I had to get a transfer through Frankfurt. The time between the arrival and departure of the flight to India was short, but passengers for India were picked up by a special service and delivered on time at the airplane. (At last a service of an airline, Austrian Airline, that tries hard to get passengers at their destination on time, contrary to for example Czech Airlines). I arrived at 1h00 in the morning (local time) in Dehli and expected a long wait at the customs. But that turned out to work fine. But due the cancellation of my flight to Vienna, my luggage was not there. That took a heap of forms and stamps and I was sent off with a emergency sanitary set. (more...)

WSA 09 - 21st Century India through Content

2009-04-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

AGENDA
21st Century India through Digital Content
DATE: April 2, 2009
VENUE: Hotel Intercontinental, Nehru Place, New Delhi

Inaugural & Power Session: 10.00 – 11.00 AM
The Inaugural Session would be highlighting the main theme of the Summit: ‘21st Century India through Digital Content’ and how the learning from global experts can make it to the next and also how ICT is changing the development paradigm of the country – a lesson for global experts.
• Introduction & Session Anchor/Moderator: Digital Empowerment Foundation
• Welcome Address by Mr SR Rao, Add Secretary, DIT, MoCIT
• Inaugural Address by Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner of India
• Keynote Address by Mr. R. Chandrasekhar, Special Secretary, DIT, MoCIT
• Summit Speech by Prof Peter A. Bruck, Chairman, World Summit Award, Austria (more...)

WSA 09 - WSA & India Summit Conference

2009-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Introduction to WSA & the India Summit Conference

In 2003 when United Nations invited for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), its purpose was to develop and foster a clear political will and take concrete steps towards the establish the foundations for an Information Society for all, reflecting all the different interests at stake and to integrate especially developing countries into a globalised information society where every individual without any differentiation could be a part of the digital revolution and be part of the informed and knowledge based society. (more...)

WSA 09 Pre-jury & Summit Program

2009-03-31T06:33:00.000-07:00

Day 0 – Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Arrival of WSA Grand Jury members in New Delhi
20:00 Informal get2gether in the Jury Hotel
Venue:
Jukaso IT Suites Gurgaon
1, IDC Mehrauli Road, Gurgaon 122001
Haryana, India
Tel.: + 91-124-4082000
Welcome by Osama Manzar and Anastasia Konstantinova

Day 1 – Thursday, 2 April 2009
Venue:
INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels & Resorts
Nehru Place, New Delhi, 110019 • INDIA
Tel Front Desk: +91-11-41223344
09:00 Departure from the Hotel for City Center New Delhi (more...)

WSA 09 - Letter of Welcome

2009-03-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

Dear WSA Grand Jury Member*,

Welcome to India!

We are delighted that you are able to take time out from your work commitments and join in the World Summit Award Expert Jury 2009. During the next 6 days you will have the almost impossible task of selecting the world’s best in e-Content and creativity. It is thanks to your support and work during this evaluation process that the best e-Content producers and designers will have their work recognised, celebrated and will hopefully enjoy new opportunities. (more...)

WSA 09 - Trailblazing

2009-03-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

This week the 2009 World Summit Award Grand Jury will gather in New Dehli. Some 35 multimedia experts come from all over the world and some 15 people are local and Austrian staff. (more...)