French company scoops EuroPrix 99 MultimediaArt award
A children's software package that takes its young users on a voyage of discovery through the forest was declared the overall winner of Europe's most important new media award at a recent ceremony in Tampere, Finland. Forestia Junior produced by a small French publishing company, Lasermedia, scooped the top prize in the EuroPrix 99 MultimediaArt awards as well as for the category 'first steps in multimedia'. Presenting the award, European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen stressed the importance of recognising European talent through this unique multimedia contest, now in its second year. He said: 'It is the aim of the EuroPrix MultimediaArt to bring together Europe's finest multimedia producers and products that bring benefit to citizens and businesses. By doing so the award supports the establishment of the European Information Society, the promotion of Europe's future prosperity, and the creation of new jobs.' Forestia Junior was originally produced for the French market by Marie-Christine Imbert, but is now being marketed in other European countries. It is aimed at 4 to 7 year olds, helping them learn through the immediacy of the interactive experience. The international jury of 44 experts applauded Forestia Junior as a prime example of highly imaginative content and outstanding user-friendliness. Commercial coordinator Christian Delecourt said the award sent an important signal to his company LaserMedia that they are doing something right. 'We have always taken the approach that children have to play, and that the best way for them to work is if they forget that they are working. We are encouraged now to continue this different style of publishing for children with a high level of quality.' The event included a presentation of the 28 nominated products and culminated in the announcement of the winners in six EuroPrix categories, the special student's competition and the overall winner. The geology department of the UK's Open University won the 'knowledge and discovery' award for the course S260, composed of seven CD-ROMs. The Viennese company Nofrontiere Design took the prize for 'bringing European culture to the digital world' for their CD ROM 'Sigmund Freud - Archaeology of the Unconscious'. Kinoplasti, a Finnish Web service for filmgoers detailing movie information and allowing users to reserve and purchase tickets, won the category 'supporting SMEs in the marketplace' for company Frantic Oy. A further product from Finland, Idea Factory entered by Nettiparlamentti Oy and developed by the Youth Council in Espoo, was awarded the 'improving democracy with multimedia' prize. An interactive course in English developed by a small Polish company, Young Digital, won the 'serving multilingual Europe' award. Forestia Junior took the 'first steps in multimedia' prize for LaserMedia, and the University of Sunderland won the special students' competition for an interactive learning game, 'Learning the mouse with Burnie Rocket', developed by postgraduate student Graham Mitchell as part of his coursework. The EuroPrix MultiMediaArt is a Member States' Initiative initiated by Austria in 1998 and supported by the European Commission. As well as recognising European excellence in the new field of multimedia, the event aims to create a trading platform for high quality multimedia products representing the variety of European cultures, traditions, languages and visions. Peter Bruck, head of the EuroPrix secretariat in Salzburg, Austria, said: 'If you consider the enormous number of multimedia products on the market, it is tremendously important to be able to make comparisons and to establish the criteria for high quality content products. The EuroPrix offers multimedia producers in Europe the opportunity to measure their own achievements in an international forum and additionally to develop new ideas and approaches.' Prize winners talked about the importance of building market confidence, and said a EuroPrix sticker on their product would go a long way in achieving this. Rafal Twarowski of Young Digital Poland spoke of the difficulties in convincing investors in the West about the quality of Eastern European products, saying the EuroPrix award will 'make more chances of people actually looking at our product which is the first and most important step.' The EuroPrix award was the culmination of the INFO2000 Mobile Multimedia Summit, the final event of the INFO2000 programme, which concludes at the end of this year. The event examined how the programme's results had contributed to stimulating multimedia markets in Europe whilst looking to the future of the market in the year 2000 and beyond. When the programme began in 1996, multimedia was a relatively new concept. Today the message from the conference was multimedia is going mobile. In his closing speech, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said: 'INFO200 has recognised the role of content at an early stage in the development of the Internet and on-line world. It has provided a platform to industry to experiment and engage in EU-wide cooperation.' Mr Liikanen promised to build on the work of the INFO2000 programme to ensure Europe maintains its advantage in mobile telephony and content provision which he said are the key enablers of the Information Society. Proposals for following up the INFO2000 programme are currently being prepared, and the Commission has asked the Parliament and the Council to allocate a budget for preparatory actions covering the same areas.