Random Winners
Dyslexia is often regarded purely as a reading and writing difficulty. However, the under-lying problems that cause these difficulties also impact on many other life skills. Although internet-based exercises already exist to help train specific skills of dyslexia sufferers, such programmes are generally targeted at children, tending to patronise adults. E-DysGate is an interactive website which provides a highly motivating and stimulating learning environment for a range of skills known to be important for young dyslexic adults. The material has been selected according to research which suggests that it will stimulate parts of the brain that are active in many activities, including reading. Reading and writing abilities are not separate entities, but require a series of brain processes. If these key areas are stimulated, neurological links will develop and the brain will be more receptive to learning, including learning to read. The project targets the following seven areas through direct and indirect stimulation: Auditory Discrimination, Auditory Memory, Auditory Sequence, Visual Discrimination, Visual Memory, Visual Sequence, and Spatial Position. The principles behind the exercises are not specific to any given language - they will work for all individuals across Europe. For more information visit the website http://www.edysgate.org.
Newstin is an innovative technology that incorporates a new approach to content organization. Comprising over 100 million documents and 5 billion metadata items, it is the largest news database in the world with up to 250,000 articles processed daily. Newtin?s mission is to help corporate and government clients optimize intelligence efficiency and improve performance management by providing fully automated news and data categorization solutions in all the major world languages. Newstin technology is a unique system that features multi-language and cross-language document categorization. It is a powerful engine which harnesses a variety of cutting-edge technologies and implements linguistic processing with semantic analysis and multi-tier content categorization. With 2 million users globally, Newstin patented technology has the potential to become a core platform for organizing any form of unstructured textual data. For more information visit the website http://www.newstin.com.
‘MyMachine’ is a unique online project which builds bridges between three different levels of education: primary, secondary and higher. Via an attractive interactive web-site, children in primary schools produce ideas to create their own ‘dream machine’, the focus being on creativity and imagination over functional usage. Subsequently, higher education students, such as those studying engineering courses, translate these ideas into workable designs, publishing their endeavours to a virtual online community. Finally, pupils from technical secondary schools use the online material in order to produce real prototypes of the machines. In this way, the ‘MyMachine’ lifecycle (invent, design, make, show, patent) starts with the imagination of children and ends with ‘products’. The project has been adopted by the local and regional government (Flanders) and by various companies which have become corporate partners of ‘MyMachine’. During the entire process, children and students can collaborate online and appeal to the know-how and support of the partners, unifying the world of education and entrepreneurship with a key focus on ‘creativity and innovation’. For more information visit the website http://www.mymachine.be.
The Government Information Center (GIC) is a single, electronic, trilingual (Sinhala, Tamil and English), online knowledge base of 1,600 services available to citizens from 77 key government organizations. The related procedures that need to be followed in order to make use of each of these services are also stored in the database. Obtaining a particular government service used to involve navigating through a thicket of organizations and making multiple personal visits and repeated telephone calls. Language was a further barrier for the 25% of Sri Lankan citizens who speak Tamil. The GIC was established as a public/private partnership to provide a single point of access to information concerning government services in an effective and friendly manner. The knowledge base, stored in an SQL database, is available through multiple channels, including a Microsoft Visual Basic interface for call center staff, a web based interface for the IT-literate general public, and, to accommodate future expansion, a web services API. For more information visit the website http://www.gic.gov.lk.
ICT for Illiteracy Eradication (ICT4IE) aims to utilize advanced information technology to convert the learning content of literacy classes into simple, interactive computer-based tutorials. Basic reading and writing skills are presented in 3 multi-media CD-ROMs, which are designed for both classroom use and self-study. Content is geared especially towards women, who represent more than 70% of illiterates in Egypt, especially in rural and remote areas where the culture mainly prevents them from leaving home for classes. Lessons are designed in such a way that learning activities are embedded into familiar contexts of every day life and are dramatized using sound and music effects. The e-content emphasises relevant topics such as health, education, political rights, environment, and family care. As a result, trainees' retention and understanding are improved and their motivation and interest are maintained due to more satisfaction being derived from the learning process. For more information visit the website http://www.ictfund.org.eg.
Esoko is an innovative technology that links mobile phones to web-based management systems. It enables agri-business, agri-associations and other agri-projects to systematically build polls, and automatically scouts participants for critical field information. The scout technology can be programmed to send or receive text messages from participants in the field in order to track activities and inventories or evaluate crop behaviour. The project incorporates an SMS-based and Java-based application that connects mobile handsets with a powerful online toolset, enabling large-scale tracking from the field, and dramatically reducing the cost of real-time distribution and recovery of responses from thousands of participants. Already almost 800,000 price records have been entered from 10 countries, making this the largest SMS-based MIS system on the African continent. Over 12,000 registered users are profiled in the system, and almost 500 markets are covered. For more information visit the website www.esoko.com
After almost 10 years of brand-building, AWEB has become China’s largest agricultural portal website, with daily visits topping 1 million. It offers a rich source of farming information, such as news, network promotion, online trading, supply and demand, and online recruitment for farmers and agricultural enterprises . Farmers and major farming households can consult experts via the forum, and receive answers to their questions free of charge. They can also post supply and demand information on a “Business Platform”, and a “Comprehensive Services Platform” functions to regulate and control the quality of the material submitted, as well as the content of online stores. In order to strengthen the protection of farmers, a “credit star” program has been developed, which uses an electronic tag to establish a low-cost credit system for small and medium sized enterprises, providing basic online credit management services for their electronic business and trading activities. For more information visit the website http://www.aweb.com.cn.
“IQ” Training & Testing is an entertaining and educational software package for PCs. Suitable for anyone with a reading age of 7+, the software stimulates users to improve their logical, mathematical and visual intelligence via a series of questions and games. It promises to tune up mental focus, improve intellectual productivity and enhance concentration, promoting faster thinking and learning. Users can compete with others at problem and puzzle-solving tasks and display their results – making learning appealing and fun. For more information visit the website http://www.dominativ.hr.
"Street Dance School - the Center" has become a hit among Bulgarian fans of hip-hop culture. Functioning to promote a school of street dance, this interactive website aims to persuade even the worst couch potatoes to get into the groove. Not only does the site make users want to get moving, SDS the Center is also attractive from a technological perspective. Video, image and text content are combined, animated and allow for user interaction. Each time the user logs in, the contents can be viewed in a different manner, whilst clarity and functionality of design are maintained. The project requires no significant resources, making it accessible to the masses. Visitors to the site can listen the music used for training, leave comments, view recordings of performances, read biographies of the choreographers and, having been convinced, subscribe to actual dance classes themselves. For more information visit the website http://www.csdance.net/en.
You Tour uses the latest generation iPods to offer a multimedia tool which enables tourists to conveniently and fully explore the cultural heritage of their holiday destinations. In an educational, entertaining and interactive way, the user is guided round their chosen destination, their route enriched by a wealth of content. Not only are the tours well documented with location maps, digital reconstructions, photographs, illustrations, animations, videos and instructions; a regularly updated directory of museums, restaurants, shops and services ensures that the tourist wants for nothing. Under the title ‘survival kit’, information on embassies, currency, and emergency phone numbers can be accessed. And that’s not all: You Tour ensures that the hapless tourist is never stuck for words, offering an audio/photo dictionary which contains useful phrases in the local language. Available in multiple languages and for an ever-growing number of cities and heritage sites, this comprehensive package can be downloaded free of charge from the iTunes store. For more information visit the website http://www.utour.travel/utour/home.html.
