Company Offers Big Award for Creative Web Sites
By Debra E. Blum, Marilyn Dickey and Holly Hall
January 14, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
A telecommunications-equipment maker plans to offer $250,000 in cash and in-kind services to non-profit organizations that come up with creative ideas for new Web sites.
Ericsson, which is based in Sweden and has nearly 170,000 employees worldwide, will this month introduce the first annual Ericsson Internet Community Awards, or ERICA.
The company says it wants non-profit groups to submit ideas about new sites that help “to build communities on the Internet.”
A spokesman for the company says that the program’s aim is to help charities find ways to reach and communicate with specific groups of people or organizations. He says that AlertNet (http://www.alertnet.org), which is sponsored by the Reuters Foundation, is an example of what Ericsson considers a community-building Web site. The site provides a forum for groups that do international relief work.
As many as six charities may split the award — which will be $100,000 in cash and $150,000 worth of support for Web-site development. More information about the awards program is available at http://www.ericsson.com/erica.
