Innovate by building on what’s there

Bill Thompson and the New Statesman New Media Awards 2008 from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

Technology writer Bill Thompson, a judge in the New Statesman New Media Awards 2008,  has been involved since the awards started 10 years ago. He is well-placed to applaud both the consistent support of  NS publisher Spencer Neal, and that of competitors committed to turning ideas into action.

On this occasion Bill was standing in for Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson, who was called to a Commons vote. Earlier Tom - see interview here - had launched a competition called Show Us a Better Way offering £20,000 in prizes for projects to use government-collected data more innovatively for public services. (read more...).

UK Catalyst Awards shortlist

 The shortlist for the UK Catalyst Awards was announced yesterday at 2gether08, and you can find it here. Dan Mcquillan described the awards earlier:

What happens when social need collides head on with the social web? How are widespread and easy-to-use technologies being used to benefit communities?

The UK Catalyst Awards are a bold experiment to answer these questions. Announced at the same time as the Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action, the bet is that social activists across the UK are using technology to benefit communities in lots of different ways. We want to shine a spotlight on these projects, big or small, as a way to boost those projects and also to spread the inspiration.

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New Statesman New Media Awards ceremony

2gether08 hosted the presentation ceremony for the 10th New Statesman New Media Awards and, thanks to the video setup that we had for feeds to other rooms and webcasting, were able to get a top-quality recording.

Here you’ll see New Statesman publisher Spencer Neal making the introductions,  Channel 4’s technology correspondent Ben Cohen making the presentations, and technology writer Bill Thompson standing in for Minister Tom Watson - who had to vote in the Commons. New Statesman website editor Ben Davies wrapped up proceedings with a well-deserved vote of thanks to awards organiser Charlotte Eisenhart.

You can find the full list of winners here on the New Statesman’s site, chosen from this set of finalists..