FRIDA 2011 Awards: A Commitment to Development

03/11/2011

Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean (FRIDA)

The Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean (FRIDA) presented awards to five outstanding initiatives that have contributed to the use of the Internet as a catalyst for change in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The projects Plan Ceibal, Mercedes y Marcos Paz Digital, Red Educativa Mundial, Movimiento Mega Não ao vigilantismo na Internet, and Via Nostrum were presented the 2011 FRIDA Award during the LACNIC XVI event in Buenos Aires.

The winning proposals were selected from among the more than 120 projects from 34 different countries of our region presented this year in response to a contest summoned by the FRIDA Program aimed at recognizing those initiatives that have made the greatest contribution in the areas of Internet access, freedom, development, and innovation −key 2011 Internet Governance Forum issues. All winning project leaders participated in the sixth edition of the Forum, held in Kenya in late September, where they shared their regional experiences.

In the Access category –initiatives that have allowed increasing Internet access through new technical and organizational formats– the winning project was Plan Ceibal, of Uruguay.

In the Innovation category –initiatives that have introduced technical innovations in any aspect relating to Internet development– the jury selected the project Mercedes y Marcos Paz Digital, of Argentina.

In the Development category –initiatives that use the Internet to contribute directly to the resolution of environmental and socio economic challenges– the award was presented to Red Educativa Mundial.

In the Freedoms category –projects relating to freedom of expression, freedom of association, privacy, security, consumer rights, and new forms of intellectual property within the digital environment– the winning initiative was Movimiento Mega Nao ao vigilantismo na Internet de Brasil.

Finally, the fifth winning project was the one with the best 2.0 campaign results (highest number of online votes), Via Nostrum: Red de Desarrollo de Conocimiento.

The jury also awarded special mentions to the following projects: Programa Nacional de Alfabetización Digital (Uruguay, Access), Red Meta Reciclagem (Brazil, Innovation), La Mula.pe (Peru, Freedoms), and Medellín Digital (Colombia, Development).

The five members of the jury –Valeria Bentancourt (Ecuador), Ida Holz (Uruguay), Edmundo Vitale (Venezuela), Jesús Martínez Afonso (Cuba), and Amparo Arango (Dominican Republic)– highlighted the quality of the projects that were presented and noted that several study rounds had to be completed before finally selecting the winning projects.

The FRIDA Award is presented by the FRIDA Program (the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean), an initiative of the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC), with the financial support of the International Development Research Center (IDRC) and the Internet Society (ISOC).