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Stockholm Challenge

HORIZON, A Finalist, Participates in Stockholm Challenge Events

The Stockholm Challenge is hailed by the Challenge organizers as the Noble Prize for the IT Society. The Challenge is a non-profit initiative of the City of Stockholm.

Béla Selendy, HORIZON Solutions Site Webmaster and designer, and Janine Selendy, HORIZON's Chairman and President represented the organization at the Stockholm Challenge events for Finalists in September. In the aftermath of the September 11th catastrophe, the Event speakers emphasized the increased importance for efforts such as HORIZON's to bring about greater understanding and increased sharing of knowledge to help people in every corner of the world.

"The Challenge continues to offer a unique and privileged window into the advancing frontier of the emerging information society" says professor Alfonso Molina, Chairman of the Stockholm Challenge Jury. "The trends this year reveal a deepening of the 'network' or 'knowledge' society. Another important overall trend is the stronger participation of governments in services such as health, education and environment, with many powerful projects and information portals emerging in collaboration with other organisations. In addition, networks using advanced IT are emerging in developing countries, helping to improve life and work in deprived areas and helping to bridge the digital divide" continues Alfonso Molina. The jury base their evaluation on the following four criteria: Innovation; User Need; Sustainability; Transferability. Special attention is given to projects that promote democracy, counteract segregation and discrimination or support gender equality.

Every year hundreds of new-thinking IT entrepreneurs, selected Stockholm Challenge Finalists by an international jury of experts, meet in Stockholm and show their Best Practice Applications to interested exhibition visitors, thus providing an opportunity to study and bring about the fantastic possibilities brought by information technology to the rest of the world.

This year more than 700 IT projects from 90 different countries throughout the world joined the Stockholm Challenge Award. One hundred of these were selected finalists by the international jury, and invited to Stockholm and the Final Events. About 55 of these finalists exhibited their work at the Stockholm

The Stockholm Challenge is a global arena for pioneering IT projects that focus on the benefit technology can bring people and society. It is a way of building networks between entrepreneurs who will benefit from contacts across borders, cultures and economies. The Stockholm Challenge focuses on the positive effects of today's information society, technology itself is not the issue. The seven categories reach the whole spectra of today's society; New Economy, Health & Quality of Life, Culture & Entertainment, Public Services & Democracy, Education, Environment and A Global Village, a new category for new-thinking projects crossing borders between societies, cultures and scientific fields. The finalists were all invited to the Final Events that took place during the last week of September.

(c) HORIZON INTERNATIONAL 2001