Jack Boumans : 2009 Bahrain eContent Awards Jury Share Opinions Manama, Bahrain – January 18th, 2009: The eGovernment Authority (eGA) held a formal dinner on Monday, 13th of January, which was attended by the Bahrain eContent Awards’ (BEA) organizing committee and judging panel in appreciation of their efforts over the course of the three-day judging and evaluation process. The jurors, who were presented with commemorative gifts during the event, thanked the organizers of the BEA and expressed their keenness to be involved again in such events which promote eContent awareness and elevate its standards. Drawing on his past involvement in similar events, Mr. Jack Boumans of Holland, who oversees judging in Bahrain, stated that evaluation criteria were on par with the award’s status since they were based on input from all members of the panel and followed international standards. As for his assessment of the overall quality of the entries, Mr. Boumans was pleased with the emergence of several new entries in this year’s competition while at the same time noting that several entries were in fact repeats from previous years. To remedy this situation, he recommended that applicants be allowed to enter only once every two to four years to increase the chance that new entries will win. Mr. Osama Manzar of India, responsible for the evaluation process, was impressed by the expertise of the members of the judging panel and the overall structure of the event which went a long way in ensuring that the various judging stages ran as smoothly as possible. He also felt that the BEA on an annual basis instead of every two years, a sentiment shared by Mr. Boumans as well. The judging panel also said they benefited tremendously by their involvement due to their varied areas of expertise in this multidisciplinary field, and were equally impressed by the level of sophistication in general. The panel recommended adding three more categories, eMedia, eBanking, and eMarketing, to the awards in the future was a step in the right direction as they will undoubtedly increase the number of potential participants significantly.   Click here to go back to Main News...