World Summit Awards 2007

PRESS RELEASE

New Zealand at the World Summit Award 2007

Wellington August 21, 2007

The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global initiative to select and promote the world’s best e-Content. The WSA was started in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). See www.wsa-awards.org.nz/ for the NZ site and www.wsis-award.org for the global site.

New Zealand has chosen eight projects to enter into all 8 categories for the 2007 World Summit Award. For the first time the NZ is joined by five projects from the Pacific. This gives this region very substantial exposure

This years World Summit Awards Gala event will be held in Venice in early November.

The successful entrants will have prolonged global visibility through the WSA Roadshow & also the opportunity to be part of a major ‘new ideas’ showcase in 2008 in Wellington.

The beauty of the WSA is the opportunity to take the best NZ has into an international arena. In the past we have relied heavily on our commodity base for international trading. We now know the new value lies in the migration to the future models for wealth creation for NZ. Whilst NZ has demonstrated its cleverness in the commodity sphere, the new layer innovative technology is playing is important. WSA provides a very good platform for NZ. It is great to participate in a network that is aiming to building a better world through new media.

The NZ submissions for the WSA are:

e-Inclusion: Kete is an open source Web 2.0 tool for a community built digital archive of related material. A Kete (or basket) of topics may be related geographically, by subject, by source or in any other way. Kete enables people with little computer experience to share their stories and songs and memories and photos. It was designed from the ground up to be easily downloaded and configured by a layman for use by small rural communities with poor internet connections and no professional IT support on hand - http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/

e-Health: The Kitchen presents a revolutionary approach to food safety training, simulating a commercial kitchen environment in full touch-screen 3D. Within this simulated context, trainees are taught the basic principles and application of good food safety, giving them a real world context for the application of these skills and ensuring high transference of knowledge from simulation to workplace. This disruptive new solution will engage a broader audience than any other food safety standards before it, ultimately resulting in better food hygiene standards worldwide.
http://www.straylight-studios.com/

e-Science: ‘Geneious’ is a platform independent, Java-based, web-enabled application. It allows scientists to swiftly search, organize and analyze genomic information. ‘Geneious’ has been created by scientists for scientists. It includes unique features, such as patented data mining algorithms with connections to the world’s most important scientific databases, secure collaboration features, and tools like interactive teaching tutorials and plug-ins developed by leading scientists - www.geneious.co.nz.

e-Entertainment: Cube is an unconventional styled game and breaks away from the usual character based games while providing an exciting strategic puzzle challenge. Cube greatly challenges one's spatial skill, especially the ability to visualise and navigate in three-dimensional space -http://www.thecubegame.com/ http://www.metia.co.nz/games.htm/

e-Government: Te Ara is being prepared by the New Zealand Government as the first born-digital national encyclopedia in the world.
Te Ara is drawing on the expert knowledge of people throughout the New Zealand community to present the latest information about this rich and diverse country in a lively, engaging and interactive way – www.teara.govt.nz/


e-Learning: Hector’s World™ (HW) is a visually stunning, creative learning resource that prepares very young children for a lifetime of confident and wise online citizenship. Hector’s World offer innovative cyber-safety education for children (2-10 years) with free, interactive online content (episodes, safety buttons, lesson plans, puzzles etc). This content effectively promotes ethical decision-making and critical thinking skills.
www.hectorsworld.com

e-Culture: The Te Puia galleries in Rotorua, New Zealand represent the latest convergence of digital and tactile interaction design for indigenous cultural tourism.
The Whare Tapere gallery is based on years of research and consultation with key Te Arawa kaumatua (elders), and uses 3D game technology and multi-user interaction to introduce visitors to the layers of stories in the Whakarewarewa gallery. This preserves the history of the valley in a form that is engaging and accessible. The kaumatua, Te Kepa Marsh, passed away at the culmination of the project, and this has become an irreplaceable living record of his wisdom and knowledge.
The Think Maori gallery is an immersive space that combines animated films and interactive experiences to show how Maori culture is seen through the forms of the Whakarewarewa landscape. It is designed to be a tool for guides rather than an independent experience, as the local Maori guiding economy is a crucial lifeblood for the region. The work demonstrates the preserving and presenting cultural heritage in line with the challenges of the future. http://www.lumendigital.co.nz/gallery_whare_tapere.html
http://www.lumendigital.co.nz/gallery_think_maori.html

e-Business: Details to be announced shortly

The three judges for the New Zealand WSA entries are Janet Mazenier, Peter Macaulay & Jan Bieringa,

Jan Bieringa, the NZ WSA co-ordinator is traveling to Croatia for the WSA global judging panel to be held in early September. She is excited to take New Zealand’s best and most innovative entries to this global event.”

Further details available from:
J a n B i e r i n g a
mailto:jan@bwx.co.nz
Ph: 64 4 385 9435
Mobile: 027 535 7370
Coordinator: NZ World Summit Awards http://www.wsa-awards.org.nz/

Peter Macaulay President InternetNZ, peter@no1.co.nz, 021 772606

This project has been generously supported by InternetNZ