Montassar Ouaili, Minister of Communications Technology of the Republic of Tunisia, delivered the opening speech of the World Summit Award Gala on the first day of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, 16-18 November 2005) in the name of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of Tunisia.

At the World Summit Award Gala, multimedia producers received awards for their rich and innovative products, which had been selected before by an international jury. Submissions to win at the World Summit Award (WSA) were received from 168 countries. Part of the WSA Gala were the World Summit Youth Award, the Nokia 2 Billion Award, the Arab Mobile Development and e-Content Award.

Austrian State Secretary puts focus on relevance of young multimedia pioneers

Franz Morak, State Secretary for the Arts and Media and Head of the Austrian Delegation to Tunis, delivered an opening speech for the World Summit Youth Award, which has been designed for young people.

He said: “New communication technologies are challenging us to use creativity in an organised manner. At this award, youths have used their creative energies to help solving problems of the world. Creativity and content are key factors for a successful development of the Information Society. With the World Summit Award, a spotlight is put on this issue of the future.”

The World Summit Award and the World Summit Youth Award are Austria’s official contribution to the WSIS, initiated by the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour.

Peter A. Bruck, WSA Chairman, and Manar Al-Hashash, General Manager of Dot Design, Kuwait, were the hosts of the event, which was broadcast live by Tunisian television. Telekom Austria provided live streaming of the event on the WSA website www.wsis-award.org.

Project of Ars Electronica Futurelab from Austria among best projects worldwide

The Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz received a prize in the category of e-Entertainment for the project Gulliver’s World, an innovative “Multimedia Theatre”. More than 500 guests celebrated on stage all 40 teams who have won at the WSA in 2005. Awards in 8 categories were handed out by heads of state and government representatives from Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Croatia, the Dominican Republic, Latvia, Mozambique and Senegal, by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and future UNIDO Director-General Kandeh Yumkella.

At the Austrian e-Content Village, which is embedded in the ICT4all Exhibition, these 40 winning projects of the WSA will be showcased until 19 November 2005. A crucial aim of the ICT4all Exhibition is to enrich discussions at the WSIS by presenting best practice projects that can have a positive impact on the emerging Information Society, making it truly inclusive and relevant to every human being on earth.

Other exhibitors at the Austrian e-Content Village in Tunis include several Austrian federal ministries and innovative companies.

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