The World Summit Award (WSA) is the global is a global competition demonstrating the local diversity and rich creativity of ICT use.

Each country has a national WSA representation – the WSA National Expert. The WSA national experts are carrying out the local pre-selection for WSA, through national contests or national Expert panel selection. To participate in WSA, you need to be nominated by a WSA National Expert as the best national digital application in one of the 8 categories. Each country is eligible to nominate one project/solution per WSA category.

The European Software Institute – Center Eastern Europe (ESI CEE) is organizing the WSA National Contest for Bulgaria, and Dr. George Sharkov is the National Expert for Bulgaria.

ESI CEE is the Regional Software Excellence Center of the European Software Institute (ESI) for Eastern Europe. ESI CEE was established in 2003 as a public-private partnership by European Software Institute, Spain, Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM) and with the support of Bulgarian ICT Agency, UNDP-Bulgaria (United Nations Development Program), USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and ICT industry stakeholders. ESI CEE implements leading strategic management and software engineering methodologies to increase industry maturity in Eastern Europe.

ESI CEE, together with the International Center for New Media (ICNM) and partners from the national contests in Eastern Europe, are working for the launching of a Regional Balkan Cup, based on the WSA model. The goals of the Balkan Cup will be to:

• Recognize the achievements in e-Content and innovative ICT applications and encourage the creation of local content;
• Provide an exclusive forum for networking, and facilitate collaboration between various stakeholders;
• Position the region as a hub for excellence and innovation;

Combining an ongoing series of international events and activities with a global network of start-ups, social entrepreneurs, mentors, jurors, speakers, experts, government leaders, academia and civil society, WSA is an international platform for cutting edge examples on how ICTs can have an impact on society.

Learn how to apply here.