Source: California Emerging Technology Fund and 2-1-1/United Ways of California
California Emerging Technology Fund and 2-1-1/United Ways of California Named Finalist in Computerworld Broadband Honors Awards
Recognized as "Broadband Heroes" for promoting information technology to transform lives
SAN FRANCISCO, CA AND SOUTH PASADENA, CA – IDG’s Computerworld Honors Program announced that the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and 2-1-1 California/United Ways of California (2-1-1 California) were finalists in their prestigious 25th annual international awards program honoring visionary applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change.
CETF and 2-1-1 California are honored for collaboratively developing a new technology platform allows the 2-1-1 network to share expanded resource information across 27 counties, enabling 90% of Californians to quickly get assistance from network workers and helping low-income residents find computer training and tools. The CETF/2-1-1 collaboration was among 55 initiatives, selected from more than 700 nominations from 29 countries, to be named a finalist or "21st Century Award Winner". The awards were announced in Washington, D.C. at a Monday night event featuring a keynote address by Vinton Cerf, widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” and Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google.
"The men and women being celebrated this evening went beyond ideas and beyond technology," Cerf said in his speech. "They executed on extraordinary projects."
Knowing the value and growing importance of digital literacy and Internet accessibility in today’s world, 2-1-1 California and CETF are committed to connecting Californians to computer and Internet-related resources. In 2010, they collaborated with the goal of addressing two challenges: Building a new technology platform to allow the 2-1-1 California network to share expanded resource information across more than two dozen California counties and helping low-income Californians get connected to services delivered online. In two years, 44,052 callers were referred to broadband services and digital training, resulting in 7,478 new broadband subscribers. The effort was funded in large part through an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
About The Computerworld Honors Program
Founded by International Data Group (IDG) in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is governed by the not-for-profit Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation. Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honor individuals and organizations that use information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change. Additional information about the program and a Global Archive of past Laureate case studies, as well as oral histories of Leadership Award recipients can be found at the Computerworld Honors website.
About 2-1-1/United Ways of California
2-1-1 California is a free phone service sponsored by state agencies, local municipalities, and private philanthropy, and is a collaboration of United Ways of California and the California Alliance of Information and Referral Services. For more information, please visit www.unitedwayscalifornia.org.
About the California Emerging Technology Fund
The mission of CETF is to close the Digital Divide in California by breaking down barriers to high-speed Internet access at home. The goal is to reach 98% of all residences with broadband infrastructure and to achieve 80% at home adoption statewide by 2017. This statewide goal can only be accomplished if the following specific hard-to-reach target communities achieve at least a 70% adoption rate: low-income populations, Latino households, rural communities, and people with disabilities. For more information, please visit www.cetfund.org.
About Computerworld
Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers, providing peer perspective, IT leadership and business results. Computerworld’s award-winning website (http://www.computerworld.com/), bi-weekly publication, focused conference series, custom solutions and custom research forms the hub of the world’s largest (40+ edition) global IT media network and provides opportunities for IT solutions providers to engage this audience. Computerworld leads the industry with an online audience of over 3.5 million unique, monthly visitors (Omniture, August 2012) and was recognized as the Best Website by ASBPE and TABPI in 2012. Computerworld is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world’s leading media, events and research company. Company information is available at http://www.idgenterprise.com/.
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