Prime Minister to award prizes for best information society practices

The search for best information society practices has begun again. The aim of the Prime Minister's Award for Best Practices, launched on 7 February, is to take stock of and award prizes for practices that contribute to the development of the information society. The competition makes part of the Government Information Society Programme and the total sum of awards will add up to EUR 35,000. The prizes will be presented by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen in November 2006.

By awarding prizes for best practices, the Government's aim is to increase public awareness of the existing good practices, promote the diffusion of the practices, and encourage innovativeness and further development of the practices. Entries to the competition can be submitted until 16 June 2006.

In 2006, the competition categories are:

- new innovations,
- efficiency and productivity, and
- application and promotion of data security.

Susanna Huovinen, Minister of Transport and Communications, will serve as chair of the awards jury. Other members of the jury include Reijo Aarnio, Data Protection Ombudsman; Jouni Keronen, Chief Information Officer (Fortum); Tarja Virmala, Managing Director (Federation of the Finnish Information Industries); and Reijo Svento, Managing Director (Finnish Federation for Communications and Teleinformatics, FiCom). Sinikka Mustakari, from the Office of the Information Society, is the secretary of the jury.

Award winners will receive international recognition

The winners will be announced and the prizes presented in November 2006 in connection with the Conference on Information Society Technologies, IST 2006. The IST conference is one of the official meetings organised during Finland's Presidency of the European Union and it will be attended by the EU Member States' and other countries' leaders; corporate managers and research personnel; and representatives of universities and research institutes. Therefore, the prize-winning practices are likely to receive international recognition and publicity, too.

Best practices awarded for the second time

This is the second Prime Minister's Award for Best Practices competition. In 2004, Prime Minister Vanhanen presented the prize for an IT application that makes everyday life easier to Plusdial Oy for its mobile phone based ticket service. The mobile phone ticket is in use on public transport in Helsinki. In 2004, the competition received 266 entries from the whole country.

Further information: Katrina Harjuhahto-Madetoja, Programme Director, tel. +358 9 1602 2363 or +358 40 820 0750 and Sinikka Mustakari, Planning Officer, Financial Affairs, tel. +358 9 1602 3403, Prime Minister's Office