A Bulgarian project received recognition for significant contributions made to the development of the Information Society

A project by the Southwestern University "Neophyte Rilski" - Blagoevgrad was awarded a prestigious prize in the "Cultural diversity, identity and linguistic diversity" at the WSIS Project Prizes awards 2015. Eighteen winners were announced by the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - Mr. Houlin Zhao.- on May 26, 2015 at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) distinguishes projects with significant impact on the development of the information society at the local, regional and global levels. Awards are given in 11 fields and the winners are nominated based on the results of the online votes of over 100 000 representatives of stakeholder groups from around the world.

The purpose of the award winning Bulgarian project is to present Sport as part of contemporary culture. The project activities were aimed at creating a dialogue between sports centers, associations, local authorities and NGOs. A Greek youth organization was also attracted as a partner. The project helped create websites in both Bulgarian and Greek, organized festivals and conferences through the use of social networks, and helped the university’s sports museum receive new IT equipment.

The Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications informs the relevant Bulgarian institutions of the opportunity to participate in the initiative WSIS Project Prizes each year.

Following the multistakeholder model, the awards recognize the outstanding achievements of a wide range of organizations for the implementation of the vision and objectives set by the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003 (Phase 1) and 2005 (Phase 2). The goal of the competition is to show successful initiatives and best practices that can be easily implemented by other countries through the use of ICT as a catalyst for socio-economic development. This year’s winners are representatives of the government, international organizations, private sector companies, NGOs and academia. More than 300 projects were nominated for participation, which is double the number of projects in 2014. The categories of the competition are as follows: The role of governments and stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development; Information and communication infrastructure; Access to information and knowledge; Capacity building; Supportive environment; e-Government; e-Business; e-Learning; e-Health; e-Employment; e-Agriculture; e-Science; Cultural diversity; Identity and linguistic diversity; Media; Ethical dimensions of the information society; International and Regional Cooperation.