Eternal Egypt project wins World Summit Award
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Alexandria, 19 September 2005—The "Eternal Egypt” project which was completed by the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), a center affiliated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, won the World Summit Award (WSA) in the e-Culture category, along with four projects from Armenia, France, Russia and the USA.
The WSA is a global contest for selecting and promoting the world’s best e-contents and applications. Involving 168 countries on each continent, its goal is to bridge the digital divide and narrow the content gap. The WSA focuses on cultural identity and diversity, and looks for multimedia projects that effectively and creatively deal with quality content and digitize educational, scientific and cultural heritage.
Eternal Egypt brings the wondrous experience of Egypt to the world. It represents a unique partnership where innovative IBM technologies and services are used to create an interactive, multimedia experience of Egyptian cultural artifacts, places and history for a global audience via the Internet.
The WSA Grand Jury of experts from 35 countries met in Bahrain, from 3 to 10 September, to evaluate over 750 products which were nominated from 168 countries, and the five most outstanding products in each of the eight WSA categories were selected as winners. The categories are e-Business, e-Learning, e-Inclusion, e-Government, e-Culture, e-Science, e-Entertainment, e-Health.
These 40 WSA Best Contents Products will be awarded at the WSA Gala on 16 November, in Tunis, during the second phase of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The WSA Gala is a festive and dynamic event featuring, announcing and celebrating the world’s best and most creative producers and hosting over 500 eminent guests from all over the world. Five Heads of State will be present as well as representatives from UN organizations including the UNESCO Director-General, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, and the future Director-General of UNIDO, Mr. Kandeh Yumkella, who will hand out the awards to the 40 best teams.
The projects will also be showcased at the WSA Exhibition within the framework of the WSIS. WSA will also promote the project worldwide throughout 2006 and 2007 in the WSA Best Contents Catalog, the DVD-ROM, the WSA website, as well as within the WSA Road Show which is planned to take place in over 25 countries.