It was confirmed today that the newly independent rural regeneration charity, ruralnet|uk, has reached the regional finals of the high profile eCommerce Awards. ruralnet|uk are in with two chances to progress to the national finals as they have been shortlisted in two categories: eBusiness Start-up and Broadband.
ruralnet|uk's Chief Executive said,
"It is a great honour to reach the final for such a prestigious award and a real endorsement to have two chances of going through the national finals! However, it's clear that we are up against some stiff competition, in both categories, from some of the slickest eBusinesses in the West Midlands.
"Pre-independence, ruralnet|uk won the regional eCommerce Award in 2002 when there was a category specifically for the Community and Voluntary Sector. This year we are competing with the commercial sector."
ruralnet|uk has been recognised for its role in promoting broadband and in supporting rural communities, who are unable to get ADSL, with imaginative DIY and wireless solutions. This work included online and face-to-face mentoring and the promotion of online networking between the various community groups and their supporters. This work has been done primarily through the Community Broadband Network project. ruralnet|uk nurtured this project through to independence as a new Co-operative on 1 September 2004, and continues to support its work.
The second nomination is for the best eBusiness Start-up; ruralnet|uk is soon to complete its second successful year of trading as an independent Social Enterprise. Although ruralnet|uk is part of the not-for-profit sector, it has always been at the forefront in terms of its use of ICT and one of its aims is to help others in the sector to use ICT more effectively. The online services it runs include: ruralnet|online, Experts Online, DirectSupport Online and xPRESS Digest.
"It is a huge achievement for a small charity to have got this far and we will have our fingers crossed during the award ceremony tonight," Simon Berry said.
Notes to editors
1 ruralnet|uk is a rural regeneration charity (1089238)
2 Details of ruralnet|uk's activities can be found at www.ruralnetuk.org
3 Details of ruralnet|uk's annual conference, including the broadband supplement can be found at www.ruralnetuk.org/conference
4 ruralnet|uk's broadband strategy is available at www.ruralnetuk.org/info/broadband.htm
5 Free support is available to Community Broadband initiatives at www.broadband-uk.coop
6 Experts Online, an online panel of experts, is a free service to ruralnet|online subscribers. Go to www.ruralnet.org.uk for further details and to sign up for a free trial
7 xPRESS Digest is a digest of development news compiled daily by regeneration experts. It is a free service to ruralnet|online subscribers and can be bought as a stand-alone product by others: www.xpd.org.uk
8 DirectSupport is an online mechanism for the matching of mentors and experts to community groups. It is being successfully deployed to support UK online centres (see www.directsupport.org.uk) and community broadband initiatives (see www.broadband-uk.coop).
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