VietNamNet Bridge – The first prize of the 4^th Vietnam Talent Contest 2008, which closed last night, went to the Vietnam International Tourism and Entertainment Information Network.

Skydoor.net group received the first prize

According to the Jury, skydoor.net is an open, highly interactive entertainment website which allows users to create information providing points on a free map. Users can change information about the site or share photos and entries about a site through skydoor.net.

This network currently has more than 1,000 tourist sites in Vietnam and over 2,000 foreign tourist sites. These sites are divided into the categories of world, country, province, district, and area.

Pham Huu Ngon, one of the three designers of this network, who won the third prize of the Vietnam Talent Contest 2005, said this product was completed four months ago and it has not been used yet. However, the group plans to turn it into a bridge between tourist companies and visitors.

“We are negotiating with some travel companies. When skydoor.net gets a success at home, we will try to develop it abroad,” said Ngon.

Nguyen Phan Kien, a lecturer from the Electronics-Telecommunications Faculty of the Hanoi Polytechnic University, said “Skydoor.net is deserved for the first prize because the designers used good techniques and they invested great effort in this product. They have huge data and attractive technical process. If it is invested in further, this product can be applied immediately for the tourism industry.”

Nguyen Cong Hung, a disabled contestant, won the “Energy” Prize for his “Information Portal for the Disable” (www.nghlucsong.net). This website provides information about the disabled people, their products, and it is a bridge between sponsors and the disable.

The online scientific community VLOS (www.thuvienkhoahoc.com) received the Creativeness Prize, with a US $5,243 bonus from Microsoft and a consolation prize from the organizing board. This is one of the largest online wiki libraries in the Vietnamese language. It is organized in the form of projects, in which four projects are opened for public: the scientific bookstore, library of exam questions, library of mysterious sciences, and cultural maps. Some other libraries are being built, including: library of thesis, academic library, and the academic Vietnamese dictionary.

Professor Academician Nguyen Van Hieu, the chief juryman, said “When we started looking at contestants, we expected new things. We hoped to see works which have higher scientific content and technology than previous contests, but it is regrettable that we didn’t see it. We worry about training quality. At such training levels, dynamic and creative people couldn’t create works of higher quality.”

Do Duy Hiep, from the Leather and Footwear Institute, an audience at the awards ceremony on November 20, said “I see many IT contests but as an ordinary user, I don’t see many contestant products that are applied in life. Many software won prizes but most of software that I’m using at my office are foreign products, for example Microsoft Office or AutoCad.”

The awards ceremony of the Vietnam Talent Contest 2008 was organized in Hanoi on November 21 and broadcasted live on VTV1. The ceremony had the participation of many senior government officials. The contest attracted 204 IT products designed by contestants from 52 provinces and cities and some overseas Vietnamese from Malaysia, Japan, Germany, and the US.

Ha Phuong