Security, Access, Diversity and Openness - Challenge to Showcase and Celebrate British Achievement and Innovation.

05/06/2007

LONDON, 5th June 2007 - Margaret Hodge MBE MP, Minister for Industry and the Regions, today unveils the Nominet Best Practice Challenge 2007, as part of an initiative by Nominet, DTI and key parliamentarians to create a UK Internet Governance Forum. The Challenge will recognise organisations, groups or individuals that have worked to deliver a safer, more accessible, diverse Internet experience.

UK companies and organisations are encouraged to enter. Winning entries will be exhibited in the UK and at the Internet Governance Forum meeting in Rio de Janeiro in November 2007. Markus Kummer, the UN’s Executive Co-ordinator, Internet Governance Forum, will speak at the parliamentary event today.

"The UK has much experience to share and promote in terms of best practice in Internet Governance issues. The DTI is proud to support the Nominet Best Practice Challenge as a step towards a stakeholder-led UK Internet Governance Forum", comments Margaret Hodge, MBE MP, Minister for Industry and the Regions.

"The Internet has delivered a host of new capabilities, an abundance of choices and some real challenges related to best practice governance and self regulation. The aim of the Nominet Best Practice Challenge is to recognise and reward those organisations, groups or individuals who have not only embraced these challenges but worked to overcome them to deliver a better, more accessible, diverse or safer Internet," comments Lesley Cowley, CEO of Nominet.

Who Can Enter The Best Practice Challenge?

Those organisations, groups or individuals who supply a product or service that has improved Access to the Internet for the disabled or disadvantaged, provided more Security online, contributed to Openness, or encouraged online Diversity.

Judges will be looking for evidence of collaboration and cooperation between different groups such as business, government and law enforcement.

Categories:

Access:

• Projects that bring less advantaged communities and rural or socially disadvantaged areas online.
• Making the Internet more accessible to people with disabilities.

Security:

• Educating customers or end-users about staying safe online, or avoiding online fraud.
• Developing methods for online authentication and identification.

Diversity:

• Providing tools that assist in the translation of web content into other languages.
• Pioneering methods to include those challenged by lack of literacy in English or by disability, for example audiovisual communication.

Openness:

• Innovative methods of enabling Internet users to benefit from increased access to online materials, knowledge or information.
• Enabling greater access to archives of materials created through public or private finance.

How to Enter

Deadline for entries is 31st July 2007, using the downloadable entry form.

Notes to Editors

About Nominet

Nominet is the national registry for all Internet domain names ending in .uk. Its purpose is the careful and impartial management of this central database, providing stability, security and accessibility for all users of .uk domain names. Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It has members not shareholders, pays no dividends and its charges only cover its running costs. Anyone with an interest in the Internet may become a member. Nominet has over 2,800 members representing all areas of the Internet industry and is recognised as the .uk domain name registry by the Internet industry and the UK Government. It is not a governing or regulatory body, but provides a public service for the .uk namespace on behalf of the UK Internet community.

For further information, please contact:

Katie Judge or Gemma Griffiths
Fuse PR
Tel: 020 8752 3211 / 020 8752 3205
Mobile: 07981 250 762
Email: nominet@fusepr.co.uk

An archive of press releases is available for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.