World Summit Awards
The World Summit Awards (WSA) is an awards system, selecting and promoting local digital innovation to improve society. Combing an ongoing series of international events with a global network of experts, mentors, start-ups, social entrepreneurs, jurors, speakers, government leaders, academia and civil society, WSA was initiated in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), mandated by the WSIS Plan of Action, and cooperates with UNESCO and UNIDO., and is organized by the International Center for New Media (ICNM), Salzburg, Austria. As of 2021, WSA works with a daily  growing network of representatives from 194 countries. Categories. Every year, five projects are awarded in each of the categories. The categories derive from the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), UN Geneva Agenda and the Tunis Action Plan and have been adjusted to the United National Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). National representatives and pre-selection. WSA works with and through a network of national representatives that expands over 170 countries. Their task is to scout the national ICT markets for suitable applications due to the evaluation criteria of the WSA. In some countries, the national representatives  hold official national pre-selection competitions. Grand Jury. A Jury of international experts evaluates and selects the best 5 projects in each category. The jury process is a moderated, democratic vote in two stages, typically held as grand jury events about two months before the winners' events and the Congress. Global Congress. The WSA holds every year a 3-day congress. The event embraces an e-content related conference program and an award ceremony. The final gala includes the winners award ceremony. Global Champions. At the WSA Congress, out of the five winners in each category, one global champion is  awarded. The selection process relies on a jury process of national experts. On the occasion of the WSIS+10 review held in Paris in February 2013, a special online jury evaluated all 200 winning projects of WSA’s 10-year history and selected eight all-time global champions.