Just over twelve months ago, Transcribe Bentham received an Award of Distinction in the ‘Digital Communities’ category of the 2011 Prix Ars Electronica. Now, we are delighted to say that the project has received a further award, having been placed second in the ‘Platforms for Networked Innovation’ competition, run by the Knetworks project.

Knetworks is funded by the European Union, and is a partnership between CEGER (The Management Center for the Electronic Government Network in Portugal, the University of Oxford, the University of Cardiff, the University of Toulouse II, Fundación Universidad da Coruña, and the Universidad de Cantabria. The competition sought to identify the ‘most innovation web-based platforms enabling regional networks of innovation for public, private or research organisations’ in the Atlantic Region.

Transcribe Bentham‘s Knetworks award certificate

Last Thursday (15 November), I attended the Knetworks workshop in Oxford, hosted by the Oxford Internet Institute. A number of interesting papers were presented at the workshop, and the event closed with each of the award winners presenting their work. The day was rounded off wonderfully with a dinner in the atmospheric surroundings of Balliol College, where the award certificates were presented.

All of us who work on Transcribe Bentham were delighted to receive news of this award, and are thrilled that the work of the project—and, more importantly, the ongoing work of volunteer transcribers—has been recognised in this manner. We also offer our congratulations to the joint third-placed projects, Skeltrak, and TKNIKA INNOVA, as well as the overall competition winner, Social Media Surgery +.

We would like to thank the Knetworks project and the competition jury for favouring Transcribe Bentham, and for permitting me to talk about the project to the workshop delegates (and thanks to the attendees for putting up with me waffling on). Thank you too to the Oxford Internet Institute for hosting and organising such a great event. Needless to say, we are extremely grateful to everyone involved, and hope that volunteers participating in Transcribe Bentham will be just as pleased at this news as we are.

Knetworks dinner, Balliol College, 15 November 2012 (picture by Cristóbal Cobo). View more pictures of the event.