10th eTR Awards announced

The winners of the “10th eTürkiye (eTR) Awards” organized by TÜSİAD and TBV received their awards with a ceremony at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

The winners of the “10th eTürkiye (eTR) Awards” organized by TÜSİAD and TBV (Turkey Informatics Foundation) received their awards with a ceremony at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on December 17th, 2012. The winners among the 22 finalists selected among the 53 applicants were determined by the electronic vote of the jury. According to the votes of the jury the winners are as follows:

In the Categories for the Public Institutions:

In the category of “Public to Citizens eServices” two projects shared the award:

 “Audio-book Services for the Visually Impaired Citizens” project of the National Library of Turkey, and
 “Söke Plain Smart Irrigation Project (Smart Plain)” project of the Söke Plain Irrigation Co-operative;

In the category of “Public to Business eServices”:
 “UYAP Enterprise Portal” project of the Ministry of Justice;

In the category of “Public to Public eServices”:
“eInterior” project of the Ministry of the Interior;

In the Categories for the Municipalities:

In the Category of Large Municipalities:
“Konya City Guide Application” project of the Konya Metropolitan Municipality;

In the Category of Medium Sized Municipalities:
“Disaster Management with Augmented Reality (AR) and Mobile Municipality Applications” of the Municipality of Bakırköy;

won the awards.

Furthermore, as a special feature of the tenth anniversary of the eTR Awards, previous eTR Award winning projects was evaluated by the TÜSİAD-TBV eTR Executive Committee for their subsequent evolution and achievements, and “Forest Fire Management System” project of the General Directory of Forestry won the “Best Project Progress Award”.

In addition to these categories, among the eState applications promoting the concept of modern state principles such as transparency and social responsibility, the “Educational Fire Apparatus Simulation” project of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department is rewarded with a “Special Award”.

Mr. Cemil Çiçek, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Ms. Ümit Boyner, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD, Mr. Faruk Eczacıbaşı, President of the Board of Directors of TBV, Mr. Erman Ilıcak, Member of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD and President of the Technology, Innovation and Information Society Committee of TÜSİAD delivered addresses. Guest speaker Prof. Jane Fountain, Director of the National Center for Digital Government (NCDG) and member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government, at the World Economic Forum, made a speech.

Mr. Cemil Çiçek, the Speaker of the National Assembly stressed the importance for the future of Turkey, of the eTR Awards organized by TÜSİAD and TBV since 10 years and hosted by the National Assembly since 3 years. Mr. Çiçek expressed that the eState services to the citizens has become a requirement for the public institutions and municipalities and remarked that knowledge and information technologies are the most indispensable factors for the efficiency of the public services. Mr. Çiçek underlined also the importance of the production of these technologies, which is as much important as their utilization in improving our competitive power.

Ms. Ümit Boyner, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD expressed the underlying motive of the awards as follows: “With the eTR Awards, we aim at promoting public institutions and municipalities which make an effort towards the goal of e-Turkey and spreading good practice and experience. eState applications strengthen the concept of a more efficient services and more democratic governance. eState provides an important opportunity for establishing a participatory, interactive citizen-state relationship.”

Ms. Boyner mentioned the “eState / eMunicipality User Satisfaction Research” published jointly by TÜSİAD and TBV and with the support of Deloitte. “The most important advantage of the eState / eMunicipality applications for the citizens and the business community is its time and cost saving features… It is essential that these benefits are widely known and hence it is crucial to multiply awareness raising activities. As the awareness of these services and the trust into internet raises, the use of eState will also increase,” said Ms. Boyner.

She concluded with the statement that: “eTR Awards are organized by TÜSİAD and TBV collaboratively for the public benefit, for the welfare of the country. We believe that every new application we receive, every new project implemented is a step in the transition to the knowledge society.”

Mr. Faruk Eczacıbaşı, President of the Board of Directors of TBV, indicated that 56 projects applied for the tenth eTR Awards, and the total number of competing projects in ten year has reached to 297. “Between 2003 and 2011 a total of 28 public institutions are rewarded. These figures show that there is a continuing interest in our eTR Awards and this encourages us,” said Mr. Eczacıbaşı.

Remarking that the youth trusts more the internet and the eState / eMunicipality applications, and uses these applications more, Mr. Eczacıbaşı stated: “If the initiatives expected to break new grounds in education such as FATİH Project are offered to the youth of this country effectively, rapidly, and efficiently, with an up-to-date, modern content, our youth will get the opportunity to become effectively, rapidly, and efficiently prepared for the tough global competition.”

Mr. Eczacıbaşı reminded that eState applications mean savings for the related institution and hence savings for the state. He said “With these applications jobs are done faster and more conveniently. The benefits of job satisfaction cannot be measured financially. But this intangible benefits to the quality of life of the employee and the institution cannot be ignored. I invite all the winners of the eTR Awards for the last ten years to make a savings and efficiency calculation. We all have to use the resource of our country consciously and economically. The eTR projects are financed by the taxes paid by the people after all. To show the amount saved to the citizen will contribute to the transparency of the state.”

Mr. Erman Ilıcak, Member of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD and President of the Technology, Innovation and Information Society Committee of TÜSİAD said: “The increasing significance of the eTR Awards is an indicator of the importance attached to the eTransformation. eTR Awards do not only provide speed and convenience in public services, but also contribute to the construction of a more transparent and accountable state apparatus. With the introduction of the e-Transformation Turkey Project the use of knowledge and information technology in the public services became widespread. We observe that as the investment in eState application multiply, both the penetration and the usability of these applications increase.

The guest keynote speaker Prof. Jane Fountain, Director of the National Center for Digital Government (NCDG) and member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government, at the World Economic Forum expressed her pleasure to be present in the eTR Awards Ceremony and said: “The transparency, the accessibility and the straightforwardness of the eState applications are crucial for their usability and efficiency. Turkey develops innovative approaches to the eState applications. eTR Awards finalist projects have such innovative features. Turkey has become a prominent country with its innovative eState applications.”

eTR Awards Jury is composed of the following members (with the alphabetical order)

Mr. Eray Akdağ, TÜSİAD Ankara Permanent Representative and TÜSİAD Liaison to the Turkish Parliament;
Mr. Özcan Akdeniz, Index Ankara Regional Manager,
Dr. Ali Arifoğlu, Deputy Director of the METU Informatics Institute and Chairman of the eState Research Center;
Mr. Emin Sadık Aydın, Director of the Information Society Department at the Ministry of Development;
Prof. Dr. Türksel Kaya Bensghir, Lecturer in TODAİE and Chairman of the TODAEİ eState Research Center (eDEM);
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kürşat Çağıltay, Lecturer at the ODTÜ Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department;
Mr. Hakan Çelik, Ankara Representative of the Daily Posta;
Mr. Metehan Demir, Ankara Representative of the Daily Hürriyet;
Mr. Kıvanç Dinçer, Vice President of TÜBİTAK;
Mr. Ercan Durdular, Deputy Secretary General of TBMM (Information and Information Technologies Services)
Mr. Erdem Erkul, Director of Public Affairs & Corporate Citizenship at Microsoft Turkey
Mr. Abdullah Raşit Gülhan, President of the Board of Directors of the Sinerjitürk Foundation;
Mr. Aydın Kolat, Ankara Representative of TBV and General Manager of Verisis;
Prof. Dr. Şeref Sarıoğlu, Lecturer at Gazi University Engineering Faculty, Director of the Institute of Natural and Applied Sciences;
Mr. Ali Özer, Director of Media, Publication and Public Relations Department of TBMM;
Mr. Mehmet Ziya Telli, Public Sector Sales Manager at IBM

eTR Awards were first organized jointly by TÜSİAD and TBV in 2003, with the purpose of accelerating the competition-enhancing, knowledge-based and e-Services-oriented transformation of Turkey in EU harmonization process.
For detailed information: www.etrodulleri.org