Under the Patronage of His Excellency the Minister of ICT, Jordan Web Awards Honors Winners in Web Design and Development

Amman, January 27^th,2009— Under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Basem Al Rousan, the Minister of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT), the winners of the 2008 Jordan Web Awards were announced on Saturday January 24^th, 2009 at the Grant Hyatt Amman Hotel at a ceremony attended by more than 350 guests. Organized by MediaScope, this is the third consecutive Web Awards that takes place in Jordan since 2006.

As the only and leading award program in its field, the 2008 Jordan Web Awards received 157 websites, representing more than 35 different companies in Jordan. The awards were presented to 81 winners in 27 different categories in various sectors. Special and honorary awards were also provided to distinguished websites.

Information Technology Planet (ITP) received the first prize in the 'Web of the Year' category with 26 points, while Media Plus came in second with 24 points, Dot Jo came in third with 20 points and Batelco came in fourth with 19 points.

The first prize is determined based on the number of points each website gains according to the number of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards it receives. The Gold award is equivalent to 3 points, the Silver award is equivalent to two points and the bronze award is equivalent to one point.

Zain Jordan received two special awards that included the Website of the Year Award and the best website built on Microsoft Technology Award, while the annual honorary award went to 7iber.com.

Zeid Nasser, Managing Director of MediaScope and JWA organizer said, “I am proud to say that in the last three years the Jordan Web Awards has grown in stature, prestige and recognition. We witnessed the remarkable progress of Jordan's web design and development sector, which now has the capacity to compete on a regional level, this is due to the exceptional talent and skill of Jordanians."

The winners of the Jordan Web Awards may represent the Kingdom at the Pan Arab Web Awards 2009 that will be held at Burj Al Arab in Dubai in April. The competition will also include participants from Arab countries such as Lebanon, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait.

The 2008 Jordan Web Awards was sponsored by a number of leading companies including TE Data as the Platinum Sponsor, the Gold Sponsors being Taqarub Communication and Maktoob.com, and the Silver Sponsors being Talasim.com, Khabir.com, GraphEast, Mazaj FM, Al Ghad Newspaper and Al Waseet Newspaper. The event is organized in cooperation with the MoICT, Microsoft, Business Software Alliance (BSA), Jordan Computer Society and Intaj.

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