Ready, Set, Go.

Daily Slideshow

Tables Await Jurors in the Congress Hall

The Jury is about to begin. As jurors arrived by ferry, tutors met with Dr. Peter Bruck, the Conference Chair, for a quick briefing before the official schedule. Technicians are making the last checks on the computer panels sitting patiently set up with over 50 products on each.


The Welcome Dinner tonight was the first opportunity for jurors to see everyone else who is
here. With new judges arriving and those who participated before reconnecting, it's a very exciting time. We honoured not only those who came to judge, but those who came to support them, their wives, brothers, partners and companions in the room. One of the tutors, Martina from Zagreb, celebrated her 20th Birthday.


Now everyone heads off to bed for the last of not-too-too-early mornings as the opening plenary is scheduled tomorrow.


We've gotten wind of an unofficial blog for the Jury by Jak Boumans, Co-Chair, link to be posted tomorrow.

What is WSA?

For a brief introduction:

The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best e-Content, started in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This is done through national contests, a global contest, held every 2 years, and numerous content-focused national and international conferences and workshops – the WSA Road Show. 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!

What is the Digital Divide?

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.

What is the Content Gap?

As world economies focus on creating and improving technological products, the issue of content is considered insufficiently. Technology and what technology produces belong together – one cannot exist without the other. The ”what” however, the core of it all, remains a fraction of what it could be – due to an appalling lack of under financing. This is straight from our website at www.wsis-award.org

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to the blog of the 2007 World Summit Awards for the top in Global E-Content!

My name is Xenia Maren Menzies and I will be your recorder for the next two weeks. I've been an intern at the International Center for New Media in Salzburg, Austria for the last three weeks helping the good people who organized this event get everything ready for this conference. As a Romanian-born Canadian student working in Austria this summer, I was chosen to be sort of an international insider voice for the event. I'd love to hear what you think as comments or feedback directly to me.

We'll be inviting guest bloggers and getting clips from the conference throughout, as well as daily updates of what everyone is doing. I'll start with preparations up until now and go through until the Summit starting on September 8th.