Two innovative African projects that have set the pace in Information Communication Technology (ICT) content development were recognised by the inaugural World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Awards last night.
Time to Market and the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) won awards at the colourful ceremony attended by heads of state, ministers and other high-ranking officials in the ICT sector. WSIS launched the award, given to 40 finalists, as part of its quest to bridge the gap between technology and content.
The two projects impressed 36 eminent judges from 36 countries who represented a range of languages and cultures.
Time to Market offers real-time market data regarding farm and sea harvests in Senegal. producers and traders can use their mobile phones to check the availability of products. WOUGNET provides information about women in Uganda and the information is used by both local women and interested outsiders.
Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade took the opportunity to congratulate the two African winners and drum up support for the Digital Solidarity Fund. Speaking in a mixture of French and English, Wade, who is also a patron of the WSIS awards, said he was not surprised that Senegal was one of the winners, adding that his government had decided to spearhead ICT development in Africa.
The jury also gave special mention to 21 projects that had excelled in various categories but did not make it to the finals. Seven of these were African. There was the IAI Cameroon website from Cameroon; Dinka Dance from Sudan; Eprocureweb from Kenya; Trade Point Senegal from Senegal; People of Bahdja from Algeria; and two South African websites: Science in Africa, and Health-e News Service.
However, western and Asian countries swept the board in the major categories, which were e-learning, e-business, e-science, e-culture, e-entertainment, e-government, e-health, and e-inclusion.
Of the 803 nominations, only 35 entries were from Africa. While lack of content quality might have been an excuse for this, Lawrence Zikusoka, a member of the jury, said, ‘The major challenge was getting the message out: there was limited publicity. Besides, our governments have to develop policies that allow people to invest and develop content in local languages. What was needed was the innovative use of information like in the case of Time to Market.” Zikusoka is also a founder and director of Conservation Through Public Health, an organisation based in Uganda.
The awards were created as a mechanism to allow an understanding of the richness that already exists and to create the necessary transparency in information as regards quality content, applications and their availability.
According to Professor Peter Bruck of the World Summit Award board of directors, the clash between technology and content is as old as media-based culture.
The awards were held in the context of the digital divide that separates the north from the south. The award organisers have said they appreciate that the information poor have not only limited access to the Internet and other digital media platforms, but they are also getting lower quality content and applications. — Hana