Marked increase of nominations for e-Swabhimani 2014

About 250 nominations have been received for e-Swabhimani 2014 – the national award for the best e-content and innovative ICT applications, says the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA).
Registering an increase each year from the 130 entries at the first e-Swabhimani in 2009, the 2014 nominations mark the highest number during the five years, say ICTA sources.
During the next few weeks these nominations will be carefully judged by a jury comprising local and international experts.
The fifth annual presentation of e-Swabhimani awards will be held in Colombo in November 2014.
Further information could be obtained from www.eswabhimani.lk.
Explaining the raison de e’tre of e-Swabhimani ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura said: “Recognising that the disparities in accessing information and communication technologies that exist in the society today stem not only from inadequate infrastructure but also from the lack of appropriate content, the ICTA initiated the e-Swabhimani Award in 2009. The aim of this Award is to encourage and incentivise local developers to come up with innovative applications and digital content that will impact on society as a whole.
“The design and development of good quality content and applications require creative imagination, engineering know-how as well as financial resources. Moreover creation of content and applications for societal use is often not addressed by commercial software developers since it does not generate much profit. It is therefore recognised that there is a need to incentivise and facilitate content creation.”
Drawing attention to the international significance of the contest ICTA CEO said: “Over the years we have submitted the winning products of this national contest to the internationally held ‘World Summit Awards’ (WSA), which is held along the same lines, albeit with competition from across the globe.”
Delving into details of content involved in the program, ICTA Content Manager Shriyananda Rathnayake said that e-Swabhimani was conducted under the following nine categories:
e-Government and Institutions
e-Health and Environment
e-Learning and Education
e-Entertainment and Games
e-Culture and Heritage
e-Science and Technology
e-Business and Commerce
e-Inclusion and Participation
m-Content
In principle these categories tally with the thematic areas of the internationally acclaimed UN-based World Summit Award (WSA). Sticking to the same thematic areas in the local counterpart contest facilitates e-Swabhimani winners becoming contestants at the WSA.