Slovenian Multimedia Product is Best in the World

The Jozef Stefan Institute attracts international attention for creating the world’s best e-Content. The multimedia product “Videolectures.Net” has won the World Summit Award (WSA 09) with a website providing free and open access to high-quality video lectures presented by distinguished scholars and scientists at prominent events like conferences, summer schools and workshops from many fields of Science. For more information visit the homepage http://videolectures.net/.

With this, “Videolectures.Net” has approximately outrun 20.000 other products and projects from 157 countries participating in the 4th edition of the WSA, the United Nations based contest for e-content and creativity in the Information Society.

The global contest on creativity generated content is taking place every two years as a follow-on activity to the UN World Summit on Information Society. This year 545 national finalists from the United Nations Member States were selected by 34 eminent e-Content experts in New Delhi.

The submitted projects were nominated in one of the eight WSA categories to receive global acknowledgment as the world’s Best in e-Content. Australia, Austria, Canada and New Zealand dominate this year’s winners list.

“In contrast to mass TV and newspapers, the new media do not concentrate in one country or one region; we do not see a digital Hollywood or digital Fleet-street. Rather, the most interesting e-Contents come from smaller markets, and there from smaller players. They appear to be much more in touch with users and their communities. Local content, not global, triumphs regarding quality” concludes from the Jury proceedings Peter A. Bruck, WSA Chairman.

The WSA is a global not-for-profit activity promoting the most outstanding achievements as a flagship partnership initiative of the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development and in close collaboration with UNESCO, UNIDO, ISOC and a worldwide network of partners.

WSA was started as an Austrian initiative in the framework of the United Nations World Summit on Information Society in 2003. Today, it is the world’s leading contest for excellence and creativity and e-Content production and a global hub dedicated to closing the digital content divide and narrowing the content gap between different regions of the world. Key sponsors of the WSA include the global Internet Society and Indigo Brainmedia – the leading and most innovative digital magazine from Latin America, which won the WSA in the e-Entertainment category in 2007 and since then entered into a long-term visionary as the main supporter and sponsor.

The WSA 09 Winners’ Gala, WSA Winners Conference and Exhibition will take place in Monterrey, Mexico, September 2-5, 09 in collaboration with the UN GAID’s Global Forum.