Erada Portal was created by Wael Zakaria, website developer, language teacher, Facebook user and blind. With Erada Portal, Zakaria provides other visually impaired people with valuable information, empowering them to communicate on Facebook.
Together with 39 other winners, Erada Portal was selected from 460 projects across 105 countries to receive the UN-based World Summit Award (WSA) on 27 April at the Cairo ICT (Information and Communications Technology) 2012 trade fair.
The WSA will celebrate the best e-content producers worldwide in cooperation with the international trade fair Cairo ICT 2012 and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) under the patronage of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohamed Salem and hosted ministers of communication and information technology from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, as well as the secretary general of the Supreme Council for ICT in Qatar.
Winners were announced last June and include 18 from Europe, eight from Asia, two other Arab winners (from Tunisia and Lebanon), in addition to some winners from Africa.
The award and exhibition event will take place from 26-29 April at the Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre (CICC).
The WSA is the global follow-up initiative of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) organised by the International Centre for New Media (ICNM) in Salzburg, Austria. It partners with the key UN organisations and agencies in the framework of the UN Geneva Agenda and the Tunis Action Plan, selecting and promoting the world's best e-content and innovative ICT applications.
To date more than 160 countries are actively involved. Through national pre-selections and contests together with a global jury process, WSA demonstrates local diversity and rich creativity in ICT use. WSA is a global hub for everyone that values the crucial importance of local content to make today’s information society more inclusive.
Programme
The event opening ceremony starts on Thursday, 26 April, at 10:00am at the Mycerinous Hall at the CICC in Nasr City.
Activities of the conference will start on Friday, 27 April, at 2:30pm with a session on the UN future challenges called, “It´s Spring in the Region: Opportunities and Challenges for UN Organisations."
Saturday, 28 April, sessions will start at 12:30pm to discuss “e-Culture and Heritage and e-Entertainment and Games.”
Sunday, 29 April, sessions will start at 10:30 and discuss “Digital Delicacies: Tasty e-Content from the Region."
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