WSA-Uganda: The Best of the Pearl of Africa
2007 Call for Nominations of Ugandan projects/products

The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global initiative for selecting and promoting the best in e-Content and creativity. The first awards were announced at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2003 and the second awards at the WSIS in Tunis, Tunisia, in November 2005. This is a call for nominations of Ugandan projects/products that should be considered during the third round of awards – WSA 2007. Self-nominations are welcome.

Following below is information about the WSA as well as the application process.

INTRODUCTION:

The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global initiative for selecting and promoting the best in e-Content and creativity. It involves representatives from numerous countries on all continents and sees the bridging of the digital divide and narrowing of the content gap as its overall goal.

The WSA places its emphasis on cultural diversity and identity, the creation of varied information content and the digitalization of educational, scientific and cultural heritage.

WSA is an invitation project and a global hub for everyone, who sees the crucial importance of excellent e-Content creation within the new Information Society. As of today, 168 countries are actively involved in WSA. New partners from all over the world are always welcome to join this global initiative!

THE GOAL:

Technology does not inspire, content does. The information society will remain an empty concept if one talks solely about technology, networks and access issues.

Digital libraries, new ways of storytelling and flash information have come to the living room. But what about people who are offline or do not speak English? Who don’t even know what Web or Internet mean? No, the problem is not that they don’t have a computer. The problem is that they don’t have access to high-quality contents that could change their lives.

The WSA place their emphasis on cultural diversity and identity, the creation of varied information content and the digitalization of educational, scientific and cultural heritage. These issues belong to the core of a quality Information Society in which people will be happy to live.

The goal of the WSA is to break the awareness barrier and the marketing deadlock where big promotional budgets or markets dominance decide what is available and known in e-content.

WSA AWARD 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. This is why the WSA has the following eight (8) categories:

1. e-Government
   Empowering citizens and serving public services clients; fostering quality and efficiency of information exchange and communication services in governmental and public administrative processes; strengthening participation of citizens in information society decision making.
   
   
2. e-Health
   Developing the consumer-centered model of health care where stakeholders collaborate, utilizing ICT, including internet technologies to manage health issues as well as the health care system.
   
   
3. e-Learning
   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, supporting first steps in multimedia.
   
   
4. e-Entertainment
   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
   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.
   
   
6. e-Science
   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
   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 SME’s on the marketplace.
   
   
8. e-Inclusion
   All measures supporting IT integration of least developed countries into the Information Society. Reducing the "digital divide" between technology-empowered and technology-excluded communities and groups – such as rural areas and women. Bridging society through multimedia.

For the first awards in 2003, a total of 803 projects from 136 nations participated in the World Summit Award. An international Jury of prominent experts selected 40 finalist best products in the world in the eight categories. WOUGNET - www.wougnet.org (Uganda) was one of only two (2) African winners. The other was “Time to Market – T2M” - http://t2m.manobi.sn (Senegal).

For the second awards in 2005, 168 countries submitted 742 projects and of the 40 winners in the 8 categories, 3 were from Africa; Eternal Egypt - www.eternalegypt.org (Egypt), WebTelegram - www.webtelegram.poste.tn (Tunisia) and Artisanal Shopping - www.medinashop.com (Morocco)

For the 2007 awards, WOUGNET is on the panel responsible for nominating candidates from Uganda in each of the 8 categories.

If you wish to bring your innovative products, applications and ideas to the world stage, this is the opportunity you have been looking for.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Submit the following information about your project/product by 1^st June 2007:

1. Name of the nominator(s)
2. Title of project/product
3. WSA award category for which project/product should be considered
4. Description of the project/product, including its objectives, the people involved and/or the target audience, language(s) used, how/when project/product was started, website (if available), and lessons learned and challenges for the project/product.
5. Reason(s) why project/product is nominated

Self-nominations are welcome. It is preferred, where applicable, that you provide a copy of your e-content to WOUGNET by email at wsa2007@wougnet.org (if that content is less than 1MB in size) and/or on CD or USB Flash drive if its larger. Entries should be submitted by 1^st June 2007 to:

WOUGNET (WSA07 Uganda Nominations)
Post: P.O. Box 4411, Kampala, Uganda
Email: wsa2007@wougnet.org
Office: Plot 53, Kira Road

A local panel of judges will evaluate the applications, and the winner in each category will be announced on 29th June 2007. The eight (8) winners – one in each category - will then be submitted to the WSA International Jury that will select the eventual winners from around the world.

RULES:

1. The WSA is open to any company, organisation or individual in content development and/or management including government institutions, public and private companies and civil society organisations.
2. There is no limitation regarding the platforms or channels the projects work with.
3. All entries have to be real products. No drafts, demonstrations or unfinished projects can be accepted.
4. The same product cannot be submitted twice.
5. The producer must own the copyright of all pictures, sounds, contents etc. related to the production of his project. All software used must be licensed.
6. The interface of the products can be in any of the United Nations official languages. All producer and project information must however be in English to enable the judges to understand your product to make an informed judgement.
7. A product can only be submitted for one category. In case of multiple submissions by the same organisation, company or team, each product requires a separate registration.
8. None of the materials submitted will be returned. One copy/version of each product submitted will be kept in the WSA archive. No commercial use of this archive will be made.
9. Incomplete submissions and those not following the WSA guidelines will be withdrawn from the WSA selection process without notice. There is no way of challenging such a decision legally.
10. When submitting a project to the WSA Experts (and later Jury), participants automatically agree to the guidelines set out by the WSA team.
11. Submitting a product to the evaluation and selection process does by no means entitle a producer to any benefits. There is no way of challenging this decision legally.
12. The 8 Ugandan representatives will be required to submit their materials by mail to the WSA Office in Salzburg, Austria, through WOUGNET and arrive no later than 1st August 2007. The WSA Office does neither pay for any mailing or transport costs nor for customs duty. All products must be mailed at the cost of the sender.

CONTACT

For more information, contact:
Milton Aineruhanga
Program Officer - Technical Support
Women of Uganda Network - WOUGNET
Plot 53 Kira Road, Kampala
P.O. Box 4411 Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 41 4532035
Fax: +256 41 4530474
Email: wsa2007@wougnet.org

Click here for more information about WSIS 2003 - 2005 preparations in Uganda.

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Last update: May-1, 2007