TCF launches 1st Global Telecentre Awards

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Telecentre.org Foundation and Spark (the 4th Global Forum on Telecentres) organizers, in cooperation with the regional telecentre networks, are proud to announce the launch of the first ever Global Telecentre Awards (GTA)!

The Awards seek to recognize and celebrate the best players in the international telecentre arena, and encourage them to continue raising the bar of excellence in the delivery of ICT-based services to the communities.
The Awards feature 6 main categories:

§  Telecentre

§  Telecentre Manager

§  Telecentre Network

§  Telecentre Initiative

§  Telecentre Innovation

These categories put premium on the 3 important aspects of the global telecentre movement – People,Innovation and Sustainability – which are also the three main themes of the upcoming SPARK event that will take place in Granada, Spain on May 28-29, 2013.

All registered members of TCF’s online communities in English, Spanish, Arabic, French andRussian are eligible to participate in this global search. Acceptance of entries will be from12am GMT of January 1, 2013 to 11:59pm GMT of February 28, 2013. For details on the application process, please read the attached Awards Guidelines.

All submitted entries shall undergo a pre-screening process, and the top 3 entries in each category shall constitute the pool of semi-finalists who shall then proceed to the next phase of the competition – Community Voting and Final Judging.

Community Voting is a one-month public voting process that will be carried out via the TCF community sites, and the emerging winner in each category will be proclaimed the Global Community’s Choice Awardee for that category. However, the results of the Community Voting shall in no way influence the final judging process.

For the Final Judging stage, a special panel of judges composed of carefully selected telecentre and ICT for development experts shall evaluate the semi-finalists based on a given set of criteria to determine the major winners for Best Global Telecentre, Best Global Telecentre Manager, Best Global Telecentre Network, Best Global Telecentre Initiative, and Best Global Telecentre Innovation.

The Global Community’s Choice Awardees shall each receive a Certificate of Recognition, aplaque, plus visibility in TCF’s corporate and community websites as well as its various online communication channels. Meanwhile, winners of the 5 major awards shall receive a Certificate of Recognition, a plaque, maximum travel grant of 2,500 USD to attend the awarding ceremonies, waived conference fees for the SPARK event, plus visibility in TCF’s corporate and community websites as well as its various online communication channels.

Winners will be awarded on May 28, 2013 during the Spark event in Granada, Spain.

For general inquiries regarding the Awards, email spark@telecentre.org.

[UPDATE] On January 24, TCF and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) of Korea announced the inclusion of an additional category in the Awards, the Information Access Center Category. Information Access Center or IAC is the name given to a telecentre established under NIA’s international IT cooperation program as part of its efforts in building an information-oriented society. Check out the announcement and IAC Category guidelines.