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World Summit Award Global Champions Vienna: Reducing the fear of cancer, bee mortality, child death
Digital, social entrepreneurs from 120 UN member states celebrate 9 global winners at the Vienna City Hall
Vienna / Salzburg – More than 700 social entrepreneurs from 120 countries met in Vienna, turning the city hall into a global hub for start-ups and content developers on the subject of “Social Impact through Digital Innovation”. 82 international jury members have selected nine Global Champions 2018 from 45 WSA winners 2017. All winners of WSA were awarded by the City of Vienna, the Republic of Austria and UN-representatives at the festive Gala on March 22 at the WSA Global Congress.
From suffering to solutions, from hardship to novelty:
World Summit Award as Austria’s initiative towards a true UN Information Society
Social benefit, sustainable impact, global diversity and digital innovation are the core themes of the World Summit Awards – and the Global Champions. The WSA Global Congress 2018 showed how concern and distress give rise to innovative solutions, and how need cannot only foster invention, but also sustainable design. The Vienna town hall became a learning place with 700 participants and outstanding international best practices of digital innovation with impact on society and mentors for 3 days.
Based on the goals of the UN goals for a true information society (UN WSIS) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), 82 international jurors selected the 9 category winners, the WSA Global Champions based on their presentation at the Congress and their social and local impact from the 45 WSA winner projects.
Winner in the Business & Commerce category was beeAnd.me, a group of young entrepreneurs from Montenegro. Some of them still students, they use web-based sensor systems and big data analyzes to ensure the survival of bee colonies. Humidity, temperature and noise are recorded to efficiently monitor beehives remotely.
Colombia’s LuaBooks was selected Global Champion in the category Culture & Tourism. The transmedia publication for children and teenagers uniquely combines reading with augmented reality, imaginative animations and 360-degree video. Books come alive in an interactive way.
Environment & Green Energy winner M-PAYG from Denmark is revolutionizing energy availability in Africa with its hardware, software and content-ware solution. With small incremental payments, customers can afford 100% renewable energy from solar energy for operating computers, charging cell phones and illuminating entire homes.
The citizens of the city of Cascais are well off. Not only can they interact online with the local authorities and elected representatives, they can playfully participate and commit in the local administration. With this combination of democracy, interaction and play, City Points from Portugal won the WSA Global Champions in the Government & Citizen participation category.
No more being afraid of cancer. Brazil’s Alpha Beat Cancer fights ignorance of causes, therapies and chances for recovery. Mini-games convey the most up-to-date knowledge on illness to young patients. The target groups of the Global Champion in the category Health & Well-Being are children with cancer and their relatives.
Mouse4all from Spain was awarded for Inclusion & Empowerment. With specialized hardware and automated personalization, the solution enables people with disabilities to operate all devices equipped with the Android operating system independently – despite paraplegia.
As Global Champions in the category Learning & Education, Lab4U from Chile was chosen because it gives middle school students a laboratory with a multitude of experiments practically in every pocket. The project uses the built-in sensors in smartphones and allows students exciting experiments in physics, biology and chemistry.
PowerArena from China won the Championship in the Smart Settlements & Urbanization category. The solution helps citizens to quickly find their way around large crowds and supports administrations and organizations in coordination. Passenger flows are measured, analyzed and disseminated in real time, so that waiting times can be reduced and the handling of large masses safely managed.
The WSA Young Innovators Global Championship for under 30-year-old social entrepreneurs who use ICT to implement the UN SDG’s went to GiftedMom from Cameroon. It makes knowledge and education about pregnancy and birth effectively and sustainably accessible and reduces the mortality of mothers and infants. The application shows how preventive health information can prevent women from suffering and death.
