His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah attended here Wednesday the 13th edition of His Highness Sheikh Salem Al-Ali's Informatics Award.
The award ceremony took place at Bayan Palace where Sheikha Aida Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of His Highness Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah's Informatics Award, delivered a speech in which she hailed the significance of the awards given out every year and noted the importance of the technology of online communication.
At a similar speech at the ceremony, member of the Board Saleh Al-Asousi said that the Award's medal of honor this year went to the NGO The Internet Society (ISOC) which is an international, non-profit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. It states that its mission is to promote the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.
The Internet Society has its headquarters in Reston, Virginia, United States, (near Washington, D.C.), and offices in Geneva, Switzerland. It has a membership base of more than 130 organizations and more than 55,000 individual members. Members also form "chapters" based on either common geographical location or special interests. There are over 90 chapters around the world.
Receiving the medal of honor award was the Society's representative Sofie Maddens.
Then, one of the caretakers at the awards ceremony, Bassam Al-Shimmeri, told the attendees that the awards this year would be given, among other things, for best internet websites and best internet bloggers. Up to 5907 applicants took part in the awards this year out of whom only 2017 were deemed acceptable, he said.
Afterwards, he named the winners of the awards in both categories (i.e. websites and bloggers) most of whom were from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt.
The US-based Internet Society (ISOC) representative to the awards ceremony Sofie Maddens delivered a speech before the attendees in which she indicated that the Society has six branches in the Middle East dedicated to boost internet services for the benefit of the region's governments and individuals alike