OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2012. An awarding ceremony of the winners of the UZ. national domain internet-festival was held at the Youth Creativity Palace in Tashkent, which kickstarted the “INFOCOM-2012” - week of information and communication techologies.

The organizers list include the Forum of culture and arts of Uzbekistan foundation, Kelajak ovozi youth initiatives centre, UZINFOCOM computerisation and information technologies developing center, and Infocom.uz magazine with support of Uzbek agency for communications and informatisation.

It was noted at the opening ceremony that during the years of independence, under the leadership of President Islam Karimov widesclae trasnformations in the IT sector has taken place, including all-round dissemination of worldwide Internet and its accessibility for the wide masses of people.
In the decree of the head of the state “On measures for further implementation and development of information-communications technolgies” dated 21 March 2012, the measures on further disseminiation of worldwide web, particularly broadband and wireless connectivity, including in rural areas, filling Uzbek segment of internet with quality content was envisaged.

Internet-festivals have been held in our country since 2001. Since 2007 the “UZ” national domain festival has been held with the purpose of developing resources of the Uzbek segment of the Internet.

The second-level “Uz” national domain was created on 29 April 1995. As of 1 August 2012, the number of active domains of the secondary level secondary level in “UZ” zone esxceeded 15 000. There are several more thousands of third-level “UZ” domains.

Web-sites, operating during the whole period festival and registered in the “UZ” domain took part in the competition. For web-sites’ appraisal, the jury, consisting of authoritative specialists in the IT, arts, culture, governance and other spheres were invited.

The contest program included 10 thematic and 3 special prize nominations. Special prizes from the WWW.UZ  national search engine were included for participants of the each of the 10 thematic nominations.

10 web-sites were announced winners, which had got the most hosts among the participants of the each thematic nomination. In 2012 a new special nomination “The best site for family” was introduced.

In total 1000 applications were received. 543 were included in the contest, of which 65% were newcomers. In each nomination, the first, second and third place winners were awarded. 103 sites were awarded diplomas and prizes of the festival.

- We took part in this contest for the first time,- said Farhod Fayzullaev, director of Muloqot.uz social network, the best site in social services category.- Our web-site started just a year ago and is already popular among the youth. At present we are working on improving the design, and starting cooperation with Ucell cellular company to further promote the network.

Uz-Translations language portal wins the first prize in the science and education category for the third consecutive year. According to its representatives, everyday it’s visited by 10 thousand users, which is not surprising as the site publishes textbooks, guides, researchs, journals in various world languages. Without doubt, the site auditorium will be increasing in the future.