Original Title :Biplobiderkotha.com
Media Format : Internet
Website : www.biplobiderkotha.com
Producer : Biplobiderkotha.com
Language : Bangla
Location : Dhaka, BANGLADESH
Contact : mail@biplobiderkotha.com

‘Biplobiderkotha’ means ‘story of revolutionaries’ in bangla language is an encyclopaedia about revolutionary ideals and movement in the Sub-content and all around the world, containing biography, historical accounts and pictures with more emphasis on bangladeshi revolutionaries.This is the first website of its kind in Bangla Language. It has a section called ‘banglar biplobi’ where they publish biographies of Bengali revolutionaries from British period till now, this is the richest section in the website. It also has a section named ‘shara bishwer biplobi’ where they publish about revolutionaries all around the world. In the ‘shongramider kohta’ page they publish the life and work of those people who are not considered to be revolutionaries but great leaders or idealists who dedicated their life for people and participated in famous historical movement. The ‘lorai shongram’ page covers several historical movements of people.

The Jury observed that the website is user friendly and provides for significant interactivity with the visitors. The website contains more than 50 pieces of biography and some important historical documents also. This appears to be the first website of its kind in Bangla language. The Jury appreciated that the website is rich in historical content and it was basically created to commemorate the lives the revolutionaries and leaders of past who sacrificed their lives for the nation and therefore the it bears good heritage value.

Original Title : Mobitel mGuide
Media Format : Mobile based
Website : www.mobitel.lk
Producer : Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd
Language : Sinhala, Tamil, English
Location : Colombo, SRI LANKA
Contact : madurah@mobitel.lk

Mobitel’s mGuide service is an Interactive Voice portal, which allows Mobitel customers to listen to detailed descriptions of many sites of historical, cultural and religious significance scattered around the island. The service can be accessed by simply dialling 888 on any Mobitel phone. This service was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of National Heritage, the Department of Archaeology and Sri Lanka Tourism. The service could be used in two methods – A short code is assigned to each location and sign boards are erected at these locations indicating the site code. By dialing 888 followed by the site code from a Mobitel connection, the visitor could listen to a description of the location. The service is extended to foreign tourists as well, whereby they could simply dial 888 from their own mobile connection followed by the short code assigned to the location. The other method of accessing the service is by dialing 888, the user will be directed to a menu from which the user could select a location.

The Jury observed that this project covers 176 religious and cultural sites and the service is being used by approximately 20,000 subscribers per month. It was further observed that the project Mobitel Mguide could be used as a substitute for a tourist guide, which may be cheaper and convenient to use. The Jury also opined that Mguide could also be used as a learning portal for students in Sri Lanka who can have easy access to rich content regarding historical sites in the country. The Jury felt that apart from tourism related services, the value of the project is enormous for students in rural areas as they do not have access either to internet or books. It was also appreciated that Mobitel Mguide service is available in three major languages, Sinhala, Tamil and English used in Sri Lanka. However the Jury noticed that this service is restricted to the Mobitel subscribers only.