ACTIVITIES :: eTen :: Projects :: Project of the Year 2007
Hands: eTEN Project of the Year 2007
The result
Helping Answers Decision Service (HANDS) is the best communicating eTEN project of the year 2007
Professionals in eGovernment, e-Inclusion and eHealth on the ePractice.eu portal have elected HANDS as the eTEN project of the year 2007. The election was open between 21 December 2007 and 21 January 2008. Having received almost one third of all votes reflects the consortium’s capabilities to communicate the project’s goals and achievements in a clear manner as well as the usability of their website. HANDS is an on-line communication service designed to facilitate and ameliorate communication between citizens and Public Bodies, allowing citizens to use their everyday language, thereby obtaining a direct pre-structured and, at the same time, richer interaction.
Second came eBooks on Demand (EOD / DoD), a service network making millions of books available on-line due to the close cooperation between thirteen libraries from eight European countries. EUropean PAYment circuit (EU Pay), a simple, multi-channel payment collection mechanism for public authorities, was third.
The winning project
Citizens strongly demand for quick and easy ways to communicate and interact with Public Bodies and get relevant responses to their enquiries. Public Bodies need to improve their capacity to respond to the needs of their communities and improve the quality of their communication services and the efficiency of their procedures and staff.
The nature of e-government services is such that many of the users (citizens) are not skilled users of information retrieval techniques and even if they were, they would be unlikely to know the exact terms that a particular Public Bodies use to refer to the service they wish to know more about.
The HANDS service is an on-line communication service designed to facilitate and ameliorate communication between citizens and Public Bodies, not only local, but also regional and national. It allows citizens’ dialogue with the Public Bodies, using their everyday language, thereby obtaining a direct pre-structured and, at the same time, richer interaction.
The election
This was the fourth eTEN Project of the Year contest. The eTEN programme started the contest in 2004 as a communication action to help increase the reach and impact of the projects. This year again the election was held to decide which project website communicates best about the e-service it offers. This year however, the election was hosted on the ePractice.eu portal, allowing professionals in eGovernment, e-Inclusion and eHealth, registered with a full profile on the portal, to make their choices. While selecting a project, voters were encouraged to visit each of the twelve projects' websites and decide which one of them presented its objectives and service ambitions and achievements in the clearest and most understandable manner. There is no prize for the winner but the honour of being the best communicating eTEN project of 2007.
Thank you for those who voted and congratulation to the winners!
