Oh, what a night!

Posted by Paul Szyndler on 19 October 2010

Last night, auDA and Internet NZ hosted a gala dinner in Melbourne to announce the winners of the 2010 Australia and New Zealand Internet Best Practice Awards. While this was the second year of the Awards, it was the first time we had held a shin-dig to celebrate the announcement and the 110 industry stakeholders in attendance all appeared to have a fantastic night!

Under the masterful guidance of our CEO and Master of Ceremonies for the night, Chris Disspain, we handed out five “Audies” (sorry, I just made that up) to our very deserving winners - AusCERT, CanTeen, the Aotearoa People's Network Kaharoa, Terabyte Interactive Ltd and Cassandra Fraser-Bell of the Darwin City Council. Congratulations to all of you!

While auDA’s core responsibilty for operating .au is fairly technical and somewhat obscure, we must execute this role “for the benefit of the Australian community” (our Constitution says so!). We recognise this responsibility to give back to the community through a number of initiatives, including the auDA Foundation and Community Geographic Domain Names.

The Awards are significant part of that engagement effort – and the high quality and diversity of entries we received, and the success of last night’s event, bode well for further outreach activities in 2011.

Speaking of which - look out for the bigger-and-better 2011 Internet Awards….updates and information will be posted at the Awards Website.

Security Category

WINNER - Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT)

SHORTLISTED - Cocoon Data Holdings Limited, CommsNet Group Pty Ltd

Openness Category

WINNER - CanTeen

RUNNER-UP - AustLII

HIGHLY COMMENDED - Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

SHORTLISTED - RSPCA Queensland

Accessibility Category

WINNER - Aotearoa People's Network Kaharoa

RUNNER UP - Community Technology Centres Association

HIGHLY COMMENDED - Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association

Diversity Category

WINNER - Terabyte Interactive Ltd

Youth Category

WINNER - Cassandra Fraser-Bell, Darwin City Council's GRIND Initiative