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.

Bill said he thought that Tom would ask those assembled to be patient but persistent, recognising that government has habits that are hard to change.

He would also ask people to keep up the pressure on him and his team to open up services, to take more risks and to break down unnecessary barriers.

I think he would ask you to prove him right by building great services and tools on top of what is already out there, by stretching the limits of the possible and even the permissible

To give him ideas and allow him to demonstrate what could be done with existing services, and what more could be done if more data feeds and data sources were opened up.

Then he would ask you all to come back next year and win this competition.

Full recording here of the awards ceremony.

Bill suggests in this interview at 2gether08 that you should be embarrassed if you don’t make the effort to understand new media.

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.

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.