HERITAGE NEWS

AFRICOM Web site wins award ! The Winning Team Back row: Secretariat Staff -Sylveter Otieno, John Odhiambo, Henry Cheruiyot,Ray Amolo, Francis Awinda Front row: Victor Gitonga (20/20 Designs), Lorna Abungu, Gagan Dadyalla (Wildebeest Graphic Creations) Hundreds of people gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA), from 22-25 March, at the 10th annual Museums and the Web conference. It is the only annual conference exploring the on-line presentation of cultural and heritage content across institutions and around the world.MW2006 featured plenary sessions, parallel sessions, museum project demonstrations,and the Best of the Web awards, among others. At the 'Best of the Web' award ceremony on Friday, 24th March, AFRICOM's web site was honoured as 'Best Museum Professional's Site'. It is the 1st AFRICAN WEB SITE ever to be honoured at this annual event. Judges' Comments included: "The site considers its audience to be an entire continent's worth of museum professionals. The site has an extensive collection of content as well as timely, up-to-date news and information." "This is an interesting resource site that ideally caters for museum professionals. It is also extremely informative, rich in content with indepth information on other museums in the African region." "I thought this site exemplified what a professional site is meant to be." "I had no idea there were so many museums in the continent of Africa and so many pressing issues facing their professionals. I was most impressed by the content on this site, as it is very current and extensive; a veritable clearinghouse of information." AFRICOM would like to thank all the Secretariat staff and AFRICOM members who continuously contribute towards the development of content and translations for the site, as well as Wildebeest Graphic Creations & Production Ltd for the excellent design and hard work over the 9 months of the site's development. 'Museums and the Web' addresses the social, cultural, design, technological, economic, and organizational issues of culture and heritage on-line. Taking an international perspective, senior speakers with extensive experience in Web development reviewed and analyzed the issues and impacts of networked cultural and natural heritage. The MW2006 Programme was selected through peer-review by an International Programme Committee. Recognising achievement in heritage Web site design, a committee of 24 museum professionals from around the world selects the Best of the Web each year. The judges all used the same set of criteria when reviewing nominated sites. New for 2006, awards were made in each category specifically for small museums/small budgets. Awards were made in the following categories: Best On-line Exhibition Best E-Services or E-Commerce Site Best Educational Use Best Innovative or Experimental Application Best Museum Professional's Site Best Research Site Best Small Site Best Overall Museum Web Site