Creative Commons Sweden (ccSweden) has been entered as a finalist in the Culture category of the prestigious Stockholm Challenge.
'It is an honour to be part of the Stockholm Challenge process and I am looking forward to meeting the other finalists at the ceremony. The competition has many finalists with many great merits so we think that being short listed is a victory in itself,' said Mathias Klang, project leader of ccSweden.
The Stockholm Challenge considers projects from all over the world that use Information and Communication Technology to improve living conditions and lead to economic growth. Themes of the competition range from education to public administration to the environment and telemedicine. In 1997, the Challenge opened the competition to global participants, and has to date build up a database of 3,000 projects.
Other open content-associated projects have also been accepted as finalists. StreamOnTheFly, an open source media network based in Austria competes with ccSweden in the Culture category. StreamOnTheFly provides open content for broadcasting and podcasting, using content supplied by community radio stations, and in 2004 started including work under Creative Commons licenses. The Freedom Toaster, which will be presented at the upcoming iCommons Summit, is also a finalist in the Education category.
According to Klang, 'A factor which weighs heavily in Creative Commons' favour is the fact that we have created an interesting and exiting movement. We hope to win but recognise that we are in excellent company.'
The award ceremony will be held on May 11 at the Stockholm City Hall (incidentally also the venue of the Nobel Prize ceremonies). iCommons will keep you updated on the outcome of the event, especially the progress of ccSweden and other cc-related projects.
In the meantime, as Klang said, 'I guess that all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.'
UPDATE:
On 11 May, the winners of the Stockholm Challenge were announced. ccSweden unfortunately did not receive the award in the Culture category. The award went to the Chilean Biblioredes: Nosotros en internet project, which promotes the continuation of local cultural heritage, experiences and identity, through the use of web based applications adapted specifically for it's work.
A special mention must be made of the 'Kilinux' project, located in Tanzania, which won the Education category of the awards. Kilinux works on the localisation of Open Source Software into Kiswahili, the language spoken by 50 million people in East Africa and the surrounding regions.
Other category winners were:
Environment: African Conservation Network, Pan Africa
Health: Operation Village Health, USA and Cambodia
Public Administration: RISEPAK - Relief Information System for Earthquakes Pakistan, Pakistan
Economic Development: ITC eChoupal from India, India
Congratulations to all the winners, and to the various projects and organisations which were selected as finalists for the Stockholm Challenge.
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