Directions explaining how to organize this competition

EuroCrest Contest 2004

Best of the web site European competition of towns and communities

At the seventh Internet in Public Administration/Local and Regional Information Society/Visegrad Group and Slovenia for Developing Information Society (ISSS/LORIS/V4DIS) conference, awards in the EuroCrest competition for the best websites of cities, municipalities and regions in Europe were presented for the third time. The competition was first announced and the awards handed over within 2002 ISSS/LORIS conference.

The third year of the EuroCrest competition was announced by Sdruzeni Zlaty erb (Golden Crest Association, Czech Republic) in cooperation with European networks and associations of municipalities. The Eurocrest competition issues from the experience gained during organisation of the Golden Crest competition in the Czech Republic, with consultations of the European Comission specialists also being taken into account.

Similarly as with the Czech national competition Golden Crest, EuroCrest's objective is to reward outstanding projects, promote mutual exchange of experience and appraise the endeavours of local administration and self-government representatives for efficient use of information technologies with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of public administration services. In this way, the organisers strive to contribute to accelerating the development of services provided by European public administration institutions.

After thorough assessment, the professional jury chose this year's prize-winners from among the EuroCrest participants. They include the official websites of the cities and towns:

• Riga (Latvia)
• Panevezys (Lithuania)
• Zielona Gora (Poland)
• Lucenec (Slovakia)
• Nyiregyhaza (Hungary)
• Gabrovo (Bulgaria)
• Timisoara (Romania).

Placed among the main prize-winning projects was also the official website of the Vysočina Region (Czech Republic).

History

First winners--towns Jihlava (Czechia), Bernolakovo (Slovakia) and Lodz (Poland)--were awarded during Conference Internet in Public Administration ISSS 2001 held in Hradec Kralove 26^th--27^th March 2001.

Official declaration of results of the EuroCrest 2002 Competition for the best web presentation of European towns and communities was a part of the Conference ISSS 2002 (25^th--26^th March 2002). European Commission representatives Gerald Santucci and Giangaleazzo Cairoli gave the prizes at a ceremony to 6 winners: towns Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), Most (Czechia), Tapa (Estonia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Szczecin (Poland) and Nove Zamky (Slovakia). A special prize was given to the city of Vienna (Austria), whose web pages can be used as a reference as far as quality is concerned.

Winners of the EuroCrest Contest 2003: Praha (Czech Republic), Vranov nad Toplou (Slovakia), Tartu (Estonia), Jurbarkas (Lithuania), Ventspils (Latvia), Sopoty (Poland), Rousse (Bulgaria).

1. Subject of the contest

The focus of the contest EuroCrest is on

• Exploitation of information and communication technologies as a tool of intensification of democratic mechanism especially in these areas:
  1. Transparency in decision making by elected authorities
  2. Degree of opening to the public
  3. Extent of public participation in preparation of decision making influencing everyday life of the municipality
• Level of the delivery of information and services to citizens and businesses (the four-stage model adopted for eEurope's benchmarking of eGovernment services to citizens and enterprises: Information–Interaction–Transaction–Integration).

2. Participants of the contest

The contest is open to all European towns and communities; it is under consideration to create two categories according to population there.

3. Organizers of the contest

Announcer of the contest is the Golden Crest Association in the cooperation with the European Commission and with European IT networks, e. g. TeleCities. The same team preparing the ISSS Conference arranges the contest. Results and winners will be published during the Conference ISSS (March, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic).

4. Nomination

Based on the call for proposals associations of towns and communities of the candidates countries will nominate competitors--winners of national contest, if this national contest is held, or if not, than on the bases of their own evaluation.

It is in the competence of jury to nominate web sites of the towns and communities from non-candidates countries.

5. Jury

The members of the special jury are:

• Representatives of the associations of towns and communities of the candidates countries (approx. 1/3)
• Prominent publicists in the field of the public administration and internet (approx. 1/3)
• Experts in related fields in the public administration (approx. 1/3)

6. Evaluation

The evaluation takes into consideration three criteria:

a) Contents

What is to be evaluated are the contribution of the web site in terms of the scope of the information and services provided, the level of the detail and practical usefulness with regard to the needs of the users. Information of the execution of the public administration will be the key factor. The evaluators may take into consideration the care after the attractiveness of the pages by including other subjects such as information on the life of the municipality and good ideas.

b) Topical relevance

The key emphasis will be placed on the contribution of the point of view the scope and topical relevance of the information published. Another criterion of the evaluation will be the planning and consistent and timely publication. What can be a success are in particular those pages showing a commitment and adequate, day-to-day work with the page and its incorporation to the communication infrastructure of the authority.

c) Availability of the information and its graphic design

Emphasis will be placed on a synoptic and logical layout of the information and the outfit of the pages with searching tools. At the same time, another evaluation criterion is the adequacy of the graphic design and the contents and the possibility to optimise graphic elements from the point of view of the rate of the loading of the information providing for the professional presentation function of the pages. Another criterion taken into account will be a barrier free access for those handicapped users.

The jury will select three finalists and one winner in both categories. The main prize will be awarded to the competitor whose web site got the highest number of points for the three criteria. Individual criteria will have the same weight for the final evaluation. The specialist jury may award an additional Special Award of the Specialist Jury of the award called the Most Popular Pages.

7. Deadlines

• The contest will be announced on 1^st December 2003.
• Nominations will be accepted by 31^st January 2004.
• Finalists for both categories will be published on 22^nd March 2004.
• The results of the EuroCrest Contest will be announced at an award ceremony during the ISSS/LORIS/DIS-V4 2004 Conference on 29^th March, 2004 in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic.