A Taiwanese non-governmental organization won an award at this year’s Prix Ars Electronica in Austria on Friday for bringing information technology to rural areas in Taiwan.
The judges at the Prix Ars Electronica, which is dubbed the Academy Award of the digital and electronic field, commended the project for helping to narrow the information gap between rural and urban areas.
Since May 2008, the Association of Digital Culture Taiwan (ADCT) has been using vehicles equipped with Internet facilities to take volunteers to remote villages in Taiwan, where they teach people how to use Internet applications.
The ADCT teams involved in the Puncar project have traveled to nine cities and counties, mostly in southern Taiwan, and given 220 lectures and workshops on computer use and Internet applications such as Twitter, blogs and Google Maps.
More than 2,000 people have benefited from this project, said Hsu Ting-yao (徐挺耀), director-general of ADCT. “It is the first time that Taiwan has won in the category of Digital Communities.”
Although the project is not a new one, it impressed the judges because of the locations that were chosen, Hsu said.
“After Typhoon Morakot struck southern Taiwan, we went to the devastated areas to give some assistance,” he said.
The judges said the project is inspirational as it goes to special areas. This model should be expanded, especially as it is not funded by the government, they added.
The “Digital Communities” category focuses on the social and artistic impact of the Internet and on the latest developments in social software, user generated content, mobile communications, mash-ups and location based services, according to the official Web site of Ars Electronica.
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