APPLICATIONS

17.3.2005

THREE PEOPLE-CENTRED WWW PROJECTS IN OULU WIN SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS

To celebrate the ways in which innovative Millennium Technology Prize-winning technology is benefiting Finland, Special Recognition Awards were presented at today’s event to three people-centred applications which exploit World Wide Web and Internet technology. The award winners are: Poliklinikka.net (”Know your own health”); www.irc.org (Internet Relay Chat (IRC), technology which makes real-time conversation via the Internet possible); and Moop (a mobile- and network-based learning environment).

Three people-centred WWW projects in Oulu win Special Recognition Awards

The continuing development opportunities offered by the World Wide Web were highlighted today by Tim Berners-Lee, winner of the first-ever Millennium Technology Prize in 2004, at a ceremony organised in the City of Oulu by the Millennium Prize Foundation. The world-wide search for nominations for the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize was also launched.

To celebrate the ways in which innovative Millennium Technology Prize-winning technology is benefiting Finland, Special Recognition Awards were presented at today’s event to three people-centred applications which exploit World Wide Web and Internet technology. The award winners are: Poliklinikka.net (”Know your own health”); www.irc.org (Internet Relay Chat (IRC), technology which makes real-time conversation via the Internet possible); and Moop (a mobile- and network-based learning environment).

The first-ever Millennium Technology Prize was awarded in June 2004 to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. Special Recognition Awards are presented to Finnish projects which have exploited Millennium Technology Prize-winning technology in improving people’s quality of life.

The Special Recognition Awards presented today are being given jointly by the Millennium Prize Foundation, the City of Oulu, and the City of Oulu Chamber of Commerce. The award-winning projects were selected in cooperation with the University of Oulu, Finland’s National Technology Agency Tekes, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

To receive a Special Recognition Award, a project must be innovative, be of adequate scale, must target the common good, and its influence must be directed towards people’s everyday lives. Jaakko Ihamuotila, Chairman of the Millennium Prize Foundation, said “Projects receiving Special Recognition Awards have all been particularly successful in exploiting the WWW and the Internet in a humane and innovative way. We hope these projects will work as good examples of technology that can be used to improve quality of life.”

Established in 2002, the Millennium Prize Foundation is an independent entity whose objective is to promote technology that improves people’s quality of life. The foundation is supported and funded by Finland’s private and public sectors in partnership. The biannual Millennium Technology Prize of one million euros is the world’s biggest technology prize.

Special Recognition Awards for applications which exploit Millennium Technology Prize-winning technology are being presented this year in the cities of Tampere and Oulu. The names of the award winners in the Tampere Region were published on Wednesday 16.3.2005.

Special Recognition Awards: Oulu Region

Poliklinikka.net "Know your own health”

Poliklinikka.net is a comprehensive service for Internet users who are interested in health, quality of life, illness and how individuals can care for themselves when they are not well. Content available via Poliklinikka.net includes medical information and instructions for patients, guidance on self care and advice for people who are travelling. Finnish healthcare professionals are responsible for the maintenance and regular checking of the Poliklinikka.net content. The steadily-growing number of visitors to the Poliklinikka.net service is clear indication that it is a necessary and trusted resource.

irc.org Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Internet Relay Chat is real-time conversation (chat) over the Internet based on distributed-server architecture. Before IRC, chat programs were based on single-server architecture, and it was the decentralised method of operation offered by IRC that made it one of the Internet’s basic services. IRC is open source. Development has taken years and involved thousands of people all over the world. Without them, the widespread popularity of IRC would not have been possible.

Moop (a mobile- and network-learning environment)

Moop is an interactive learning environment for situations in which high-school students can join a local environment and communicate in groups using their mobile phones and the Internet. By using Moop, students learn to observe, store and handle information using a mobile and network structure. The learning environment supports educational research into how much time students spend analysing each subject, obtaining information about it and making observations, and reporting what they have learnt to the network-learning environment. Information about the learning process obtained in this way is of special value because each student actually operates as a content creator.