This award will go to the individual or organisation that best uses new media technology to provide an alternative, informative voice enhancing democratic debate.
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Station manager, has won Cambridge County Volunteer of the year award. Works tirelessly to bring broadcast media and training into the hands of the local community.




Access Space is the UK’s first free media lab: an open-access learning community where participants learn, create and communicate online. Participation empowers individuals and develops skills, community, creativity and resourcefulness. Access Space focuses on creative engagement, encouraging participants to move from being e-consumers to becoming digital producers.
Access Space is open for walk-in participation 5 days per week, and also runs programmes of workshops, skill-sharing activities and inspirational exhibitions and digital arts events.
Our model challenges the conventional focus on capital spend on ICT hardware and software, and suggests that participants can be mobilised to create an effective learning resource.




African Children's Educational Trust (A-CET) was registered in Dec 1997 to support the education of vulnerable African youngsters. We are an independent charity with minimal overheads run by professional experienced and dedicated volunteers. In less than 10 years we have grown from supporting a few youngsters to now supporting over two thousand, principally Ethiopians. We award long-term scholarships, have set up four Computer Training Centres for high school girl leavers and have constructed two rural community elementary schools. We work though an Ethiopian partner NGO which was set up and is run by ex-A-CET students. (95)




www.altvoices.org is a global community of writers, artists, photographers, cartoonists and broadcasters.
There are currently 24 correspondents in 17 different countries. The aim is to have at least one correspondent in each country of the world.
Anyone with a good idea and a way with words or images can become an altvoices correspondent.
altvoices is journalism from humanity's perspective; in its purest form; and free of government or sponsors' interference.
Alternative voices provides information and analysis from a variety of global sources. Contemporary and historical, it is never anything less than illuminating.




Areafour Recording Industries (Areafour Records) is a Nottingham-based, non-profit making record label that was borne out of frustration of seeing Nottingham tagged as a place with nothing to offer but gang wars and gun crime.
Providing a voice for Nottingham as a city with more to it than gun crime, a myth propagated by press such as Vice Magazine publishing the usual kids and guns glamour feature masquerading as cultural journalism, Areafour is providing a platform for the city’s unjustly underplayed, under-heard music talents, encouraging debate and reaching out to a new audience and to the media at large.




Marcus Morrell is a social entrepreneur and an award-winning video journalist. He founded Big Picture TV in 2003 as one of the first web-based video channels to go online and the very first to focus on issues relating to global sustainability. The website streams solution-oriented video clips of world leaders speaking about the challenges currently facing global society. Big Picture TV is free to watch and attracts a monthly audience of 15,000 users from more than 35 countries. The site broadcasts on demand videos of over 140 leading scientists, journalists, entrepreneurs, businesspeople, NGO directors, academics, environmentalists and activists.




William Heath is the person running Blindside




a new community radio serving a rural area in sheppey in kent has a host of shows brfm on the beat uses a real police officer to communicate with the public and also local groups have a platform to dicuss and make radio also it has a new training scheme in place giving people of all local people the chance to make radio




Debating race, identity, citizenship and culture, Catalyst gives space to diverse voices on how these concepts are continually evolving and re-shaping the society we live in.




Informative, educational and topical




Demos is the independent think-tank for everyday democracy committed to the idea that all people should have greater influence over factors that affect them and their communities.
Headshift’s redesign of the Demos website and integration of social media tools transformed this former one-way information hub into a transparent collaborative network between Demos’ employees and their target audience which has increased the charity’s profile and research capabilities.
Its primary audience includes policy makers, academics and members of the public with a keen interest in social change and democracy as well as Demos employees.




The Nationwide Disabled Access Register provides disabled access information (including wheelchair access) for disabled people




The DRC has one key goal: “A society where all disabled people can participate fully as equal citizens”. Disability Debate uses new media to offer alternative views and foster positive democratic discussion leading to change.
Specifically aimed to engage the user and encourage debate around the everyday barriers disabled people face, it targeted three aims: to challenge perceptions of disability rights, increase users and achieve 2000 registrations, and drive traffic to the main DRC website.
Initiated over an 18 month period, Disability Debate strategically targeted business leaders, public sector and the Government, employers, disability organisations, media, and the general public.




ePolitix.com provides up-to-the-minute politics and parliamentary news - covering events in Westminster, the Scottish parliament, the assemblies in Wales and London and the European parliament, as well as developments in Northern Ireland.




To discuss issues related to the UK\'s position in Europe and the world




Farmsubsidy.org is a young and growing network of European activists, NGOs, journalists and think tanks using freedom of information to obtain data relating to payments and recipients of farm subsidies in the European Union. They then compile the data into an online database for the benefit of European citizens, policy-makers and the media. The publication and analysis of this data is driving a new and high-profile public and political debate about European farm policy, focusing attention on a wide range of issues: the unequal distribution, unexpected recipients, high cost to taxpayers and impacts on trading partners, particularly in the developing world




Dr Andrew Wadge's blog was launched in November 2006 to communicate the science underpinning the FSA's policies to a consumer audience and to promote the Agency as an open and maturing organisation that actively seeks a public dialogue with its stakeholders. Since launch Andrew has used the blog to explain the FSA's line on food safety, nutrition and regulatory issues including organics, traffic light labelling and additives.




geograph is trying to get a picture for every square kilometre of the UK and Republic of Ireland. The site invites users to submit their own images, view others and discuss them.




Headliners is the new name for Children's Express, a youth media charity that has been helping to raise the voice of young people in the media for over 12 years. It relaunched in early 2007 to reflect the fact that it is working with older young people, and is increasingly doing more audio/video work. In the last twelve months it has allowed young people’s voices to be heard on Sky News, BBC News 24, Radio 4, BBC World Service, The Guardian, Children Now and BBC Blast websites among others.




Important Projects is a values-led project management consulting and training practice focused on helping social change organisations manage their most important programs, projects and ongoing operations more successfully and effectively.




Intelligent Giving is the UK's first free and independent guide to charities with a mission to help people give with ease and confidence.
The main attraction is an interactive website that was launched in November 2006. Among other things, the site allows visitors to:
- Shortlist charities by their own criteria
- Learn about award-winning small charities
- Read original articles from charity professionals and investigative journalists
- Find out where to get rid of their old junk
Intelligent Giving is a privately-funded, not-for-profit company based in Bethnal Green, East London.