Excellence Award and Best Practices Award for projects of digital culture (O.P. Information Society).

The Foundation received the Excellence Award for the project “Scientific Documentation and Digitalisation of the Personal Archive of Eleftherios Venizelos – Online Promotion and Projection of digital content” (Invitation 172, Measure 1.3, OPIS) and the Best Practices Award for projects of digital culture.
The awarding was held on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009, in Athens (Palace theatre) and it was made by the Special Management Service of the O.P. “Digital Convergence” in an event entitled “Digital Cultural Creation in the O.P. Information Society”. During the event, the culture projects of the O.P. “Information Society” that were implemented within the 3rd CSF 2000-2006 and the Digital Convergence with the aid of the EU were presented.
59 institutions of culture projects in Greece were awarded during the event within the context of establishing the Excellence award. Furthermore, special experts headed by the professor at the University of Athens Mihalis Meimaris, formed special evaluation criteria and awarded 30 institutions for “Best Practices for Projects of Digital Culture” (these institutions received  more than 65 units out of 100).
Short speeches were given by the Special Secretary of Digital Design, Professor Vasilis Asimakopoulos and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Th. Dravilas; Vaso Koliva, the Publicity Manager of the O.P. referred to the culture projects and the establishment of the Excellence award.
On the occasion of the presentation of the projects, V. Asimakopoulos remarked that “Apart from the preservation, documentation, research and promotion of our cultural reserve, the information and communication technologies prove that culture has a powerful development dimension, that needs to be reinforced. We are inaugurating Excellence for digital culture projects, in order to demonstrate that the institutions implementing fast and effectively the undertaken projects, will be awarded”.
In his speech, Th. Dravilas, mentioned that “The Excellence and Best Practice awards, realised for the first time in digital projects, certify the successful course of cultural institutions presenting great progress and distinguishing for their work according to quality and quantity criteria, in the implementation of Information Society projects”.
Apart from its participation in the O.P. “Information Society”, the Foundation also takes part in the programme Michael/Greece (Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe, http://www.michael-culture.gr) –the online catalogue of digital collections of Museums, Libraries, Archives and other cultural institutes of Greece- by publishing information about its digital collections and its website in order to promote them not only in Greece, but also in Europe and internationally.