LONDON, 10th July 2008 – Trade organisations, blue chip companies and charities are amongst those recognised for their innovative and creative Internet projects at last night’s Nominet Best Practice Challenge 2008 awards ceremony at the Science Museum. This year’s winners showcase a variety of world-class projects from a voluntary organisation dedicated to bridging the technological gap faced by people with significant cognitive learning difficulties to initiatives for protecting consumers from online security risks...
Rt Hon Alun Michael MP, who chaired the judging panel says:“This year’s
Challenge has produced more entries from a wider spectrum of businesses
and organisations. Amongst the winners we’ve had a household name like
Barclays with a device that has significantly increased online security
for its customers, and a group of volunteers from Age Concern Edinburgh
who have delivered training courses in residential homes to help
elderly people cross the digital divide. The entries have been
inspiring and heartwarming in equal measure.”
The categories and respective winners are:
- Best Development Project: ACE IT (Age Concern Edinburgh Information Technology). ACE IT provides community based computer training for the 50+ age group within the Edinburgh area and beyond.
- Best Security Initiative: Barclays – PINsentry Authentication Device. Barclays implemented two factor authentication by issuing over one million standalone card readers (called PINsentry) to their customers. Since implementation no cases of online fraud have been experienced and targeted Trojans and Phishing attacks against Barclays are decreasing.
- Raising Industry Standards: Internet Watch Foundation. The Internet Watch Foundation's 'notice and take-down' service for the UK online sector has succeeded in virtually eradicating child sexual abuse content from being hosted in the UK.
- Personal Safety Online: Get Safe Online. The Get Safe Online initiative, is the UK’s national Internet security awareness campaign that helps consumers and micro-businesses be aware of how to protect themselves against Internet security risks.
- Internet For All: Common Knowledge. Common Knowledge is a voluntary organisation based in Glasgow that tackles the digital divide faced by people with significant cognitive learning difficulties.
- Open Internet: Youthnet. do-it.org.uk, owned and run by online charity YouthNet, is the UK's volunteering resource, that includes over 850,000 volunteering opportunities from major charities and local voluntary and public sector organisations.
- Internet and Culture (special award[1]): British Library. The British Library created two complementary web resources to accompany its 2007 exhibition ‘Sacred’, focusing on the great texts of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Nominet and other representatives will promote these outstanding
entries at the next international Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
meeting in Hyderabad between 3rd and 6th December 2008. The aim is
share the best practice illustrated by innovative Internet achievements
from the UK and inspire the other countries participating to follow
these successful models.
Emily Taylor, Nominet’s Director of Legal and Policy says: “The key to
successfully advancing a self-regulatory Internet industry relies
heavily on organisations’ abilities to provide flexible, adaptable
solutions. Other nations including France and Brazil were extremely
impressed with the UK’s best practice examples at last year’s IGF
meeting. From the high calibre of this year’s entries, it is likely
that more and more countries will seek advice on Internet protocol and
best practice from the UK. It’s great to see the UK Internet community
going from strength to strength.”
Winners and runners up of the 2008 Best Practice Challenge:
Best Development Project
Winner: ACE IT (Age Concern Edinburgh Information Technology)
Runner up: Cambridgeshire’s Community Access Points (CAP) Initiative
Highly commended: Citizens online
Best Security Initiative
Winner: Barclays – PINsentry Authentication Device
Runner up: Business Crime Reduction Centre
Raising Industry Standards
Winner: Internet Watch Foundation
Runner up: SafeBuy
Personal Safety Online
Winner: Get Safe Online
Runner up: Symantec
Internet For All
Winner: Common Knowledge
Runner up: British Computer Association of the Blind (BCAB)
Highly commended: AbilityNet
Open Internet
Winner: Youthnet
Runner up:mySociety – e-petitions
Highly commended: BLITZ IT Hub
Highly commended: Open University
Internet and Culture (special award)
Winner: British Library
About Nominet
Nominet UK is the national registry for all Internet domain names
ending in .uk. Its purpose is the careful and impartial management of
this central database, providing stability, security and accessibility
for all users of .uk domain names. Nominet is a not-for-profit company
limited by guarantee. It has members not shareholders, pays no
dividends and its charges only cover its running costs. Anyone with an
interest in the Internet may become a member. Nominet has over 2,800
members representing all areas of the Internet industry and is
recognised as the .uk domain name registry by the Internet industry and
the UK Government. It is not a governing or regulatory body, but
provides a public service for the .uk namespace on behalf of the UK
Internet community.
About the Best Practice Challenge
The Best Practice Challenge is an annual UK competition organised by
Nominet that recognises organisations, groups or individuals who have
embraced the challenge of delivering a safer, more accessible or
diverse Internet experience.
About the Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was established by the United
Nations to accommodate comprehensive multi–stakeholder policy dialogue
in the field of Internet governance. It aims to bring together all
stakeholders in the Internet governance debate each year, whether they
represent states, the private sector or civil society, on an equal
basis and through an open and inclusive process.
About The Press Association (Nominet’s media partner for the Best Practice Challenge)
The Press Association is the national news agency for the UK and
Ireland, providing a continuous feed of text, pictures, video and data
into newsrooms around the country. At the heart of the media industry,
the Press Association supplies services to every national and regional
daily newspaper, broadcasters, online publishers and a wide range of
commercial organisations. Founded in 1868, the Press Association has an
unrivalled reputation for providing fast, fair and accurate information.
The Press Association and PA Business are part of the PA Group Limited,
a private company with 27 shareholders, most of whom are national and
regional newspaper publishers. The biggest shareholders are Associated
Newspaper Holdings Limited, News International plc, Trinity Mirror plc
and United Business Media plc.
For further information, please contact:
Gemma Griffiths, Elissa Fry or Lucie Smith at Racepoint Group
Tel: 020 8752 3200
Email:
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Source: Submission to DomainNews.com by Nominet on July 9th, 2008 - Posted by Roland G Buck - Chief Editor