Five Singapore ONE applications have received the Outstanding Applications Awards given by the National Computer Board (NCB). The five were selected from a total of 123 interactive, multimedia applications in the areas ...
Singapore, 23 June 1998 | For Immediate Release
Five Singapore ONE applications have received the Outstanding Applications Awards given by the National Computer Board (NCB). The five were selected from a total of 123 interactive, multimedia applications in the areas of education, information, entertainment, shopping, business, finance and government services which are currently provided by Singapore ONE, the nationwide high-capacity multimedia infrastructure.
The five Singapore ONE Outstanding Applications are (in alphabetical order):
Commercial Category
1-on-ONE by Television Corporation of Singapore
Property Interactive Networks by Prop I-Nets International Pte Ltd
SingTel Magix by Singapore Telecommunications Limited
SISTIC by Singapore Indoor Stadium & SISTIC
Non-Commercial Category
Speak Mandarin Campaign Homepage by the Ministry of Information & the Arts
(Please see Appendix 1 for highlights of the award-winning applications.)
The Awards recognise outstanding Singapore ONE applications that demonstrate excellence in innovation, content, usability, and business case. The NCB started the awards this year in conjunction with the commercial launch of Singapore ONE, and the Board expects the Awards to become a regular feature in the annual calendar of events for Singapore ONE.
Mr Ng Kin Yee, Assistant Director (Programme Management Office and New Media), NCB said, "As Singapore ONE goes into the commercial phase, one of the continuing challenges in driving mass user adoption is to bring high-quality, exciting applications to our users. During the past one year of the pilot phase, our application partners have been constantly enriching their applications, building more depth and bringing on new capabilities, such as electronic commerce and transactional functions, to the applications. By recognising the achievements of the Singapore ONE Outstanding Applications, it is our hope that others will be spurred on by their success stories and be encouraged to maximise Singapore ONE's advanced broadband technology to bring about a new world of experience
to users."
Evaluation Criteria
The Award winners were selected under a two-stage evaluation process. In the first stage, Award nominees were shortlisted by account managers from the NCB who are responsible for the deployment of the various applications on Singapore ONE. Assessment criteria included popularity of applications, creativity, quality of content and business case. There was no pre-determined limit to the number of nominees. All applications with deserving outstanding merit were considered for nomination. A total of 12 applications (Appendix 2) were nominated for the current Awards.
In the second stage, the nominated applications were presented to a panel of judges (Appendix 3) comprising representatives from the network providers, user communities and the NCB. The nominees were judged on the following characteristics:
i) Popularity & Repeat Usage
Besides considering the 'Hits' rate of the applications, the judges were required to assess how the application providers encouraged and obtained repeat usage of the applications.
ii) Creativity / Innovation
Creativity and Innovation determined how an application was able to redefine services through the use of broadband technologies and simultaneously to capture users' attention and interest.
iii) Quality of Content
Quality of Content covered an array of attributes including use of multimedia, depth and breath of content, entertainment value, usefulness, interactivity and frequency of updates. In addition, favourable consideration was given to applications that provided a complex service especially those involving back-end system integration.
iv) Usability
Usability articulated the importance of ease-of-use and covered style, navigation, intuitiveness, consistency and layout. For example, an attractive layout with no broken links or "Under Construction" pages will encourage usage and reduce user frustration.
v) Business Case
Business Case examined how a service provider marketed and created an attractive business service. This included the ability to effectively convey corporate or product messages across to users and to act as an extension of the existing business. Other notable factors included electronic commerce mechanism, subscriber schemes, advertiser package, etc.
vi) Bonus
Bonus points were awarded when judges considered an application to be extraordinary in categories not covered by the above criteria.
Attachements:
Appendix 1: Singapore ONE Outstanding Applications Awards:
Highlights of Award Winners
Appendix 2: Nominees of Singapore ONE Outstanding Applications Awards
Appendix 3: Panel of Judges
Appendix 1: Singapore One Outstanding Applications Awards - Highlights of Award Winners
Commercial Category:
1-on-ONE (http://one.mediacity.com.sg)
by Television Corporation of Singapore
1-on-ONE offers users the choice of watching TV programmes at their convenience. It is a hub of news and entertainment. Services offered include TCS-produced programmes such as English and Chinese news bulletins, AM Singapore, World Report, Singapore @Work, current affairs, infotainment, English and Chinese drama (e.g. Growing Up, Around People's Park, Return of Condor Heroes), sitcom, and telemovies. About 300 hours of programming are included. Programmes are put up within the hour. The service currently has more than 1000 subscribers and the number is growing rapidly.
For more information, contact:
Sonny Lim/James Leong
Television Corporation of Singapore
Tel: 350 5791 / 256 0401
Email: james@mediacity.com.sg
Property Interactive Networks (http://www.i-nets.com/property/index.asp)
by Prop I-Nets International Pte Ltd
Property Interactive Networks provides a comprehensive property database with 18,000 entries of property data covering all types of properties. The service incorporates features ranging from financial calculator and bank loan
information to property photographs, videos, floor plans, agent profiles and discount offers to viewers. Real estate agents can place text entries free-of-charge. Photo and video entries are chargeable. Agents only pay Prop I-Nets a
nominal subscription of $60/- per month for all the services, some of them like video takings are subsidised until the property is sold. The service uses a uniquely developed patent-pending technology to display the floor plans and
videos of the various properties in its database. Users can access quick on-line streaming of I-Nets Video Walkthrough in just a few seconds. In addition, members can download floor plans from the website which save them travelling time. Prop I-Nets is planning to launch the service in the US in three months' time.
For more information, contact:
Winston Wei
Prop I-nets International Pte Ltd
c/o Multiscience System Pte Ltd
Tel: 742 2338 / 336 5997
Fax: 742 6917 / 336 0153
Email: mscience@singnet.com.sg
SISTIC (http://www.sistic.com.sg)
by Singapore Indoor Stadium & SISTIC
Introduced on 25 April 1998, SISTIC is an online events ticketing system managed by the Singapore Indoor Stadium under the Singapore Sports Council that supports arts and entertainment events held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium as well as other venues. The service lists 40-50 arts and entertainment events per month, and can grow to accommodate some 200 events expected in June for the Singapore Arts Festival. This service integrates with the backend ticketing system, allowing users to order and pay for their tickets using a secure credit card payment system.
The website has been popular with users checking out the events on show and seat availability. For example, customers can preview a video of the Great Moscow Circus before purchasing the tickets for the show. Customers can also enjoy a virtual tour of the Singapore Indoor Stadium and preview the seats by trying out various viewing points of the stadium. Currently, online sales account for about 15-20 per cent of total ticket sales.
For more information, contact:
Jennifer Pok
Singapore Indoor Stadium & SISTIC
Tel: 340 9202
Fax: 344 5903
SingTel Magix
by Singapore Telecommunications Limited
SingTel Magix is a content aggregator that allows users to watch their favourite blockbuster movies, catch the latest business and entertainment news, learn new things with the selection of educational videos, play exciting games, or shop online, all from the comfort of their homes. Currently, there are some 6,000 users subscribing to the service, which offers some 400 hours of programmes. SingTel Magix is adding an average of 30 new movies every month.
For more information, contact:
Michelle Chia
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd
Tel: 838 3220
Email: michelle@magix.com.sg
Non-commercial Category:
Speak Mandarin Campaign Homepage (http://www.gov.sg/spkmandarin)
by the Ministry of Information & the Arts
The Speak Mandarin Campaign Homepage was introduced to raise the awareness for the campaign as well as to serve as a resource centre for users interested in learning Mandarin. Targeted at the English educated population, the Homepage currently has more than 300 items, including practice conversations, vocabulary lists, a directory of Mandarin courses, among other resources. The service uses immersive photo environment to teach vocabulary of common everyday scenes. The site employs the use of interesting multimedia content to show the evolution of chinese characters and history of chinese surnames. The homepage also offers both Internet and broadband-quality video clips on chinese legends and idioms. To encourage greater user participation and repeat visits, contests and games are organised regularly. For example, a relay story competition is now on-going. It has attracted an average of 30 entries a day. About 1,000 entries are received a month. The competition ends in August.
For more information, contact:
Ng Siew Hong
Ministry of Information & the Arts
Tel: 375 7796
Fax: 375 7860
Email: ng_siew_hong@mita.gov.sg
Appendix 2: Singapore One Outstanding Applications Awards Nominees
1. 1-on-ONE by Television Corporation of Singapore
2. Asia Cuisine by Peter Knipp Holdings Pte Ltd
3. Cold Storage Dial & Deliver Centre by Cold Storage Singapore (1983) Pte Ltd
4. Learnet by Ednovation Pte Ltd
5. Music Education Online by Double Click Pte Ltd
6. NTUC Cybermart by NTUC Fairprice
7. Property Interactive Networks by Prop I-Nets International Pte Ltd
8. Radiowave by Radio Corporation of Singapore
9. SISTIC by Singapore Indoor Stadium & SISTIC
10. Singtel Magix by Singapore Telecommunications Limited
11. Speak Mandarin Campaign Homepage by Ministry of Information and the Arts 12 Virtual Science Centre by Singapore Science Centre
Appendix 3: Singapore Oustanding Applications Awards - Panel of Judges
1. Mr Michael Yap Kiam Siew, Deputy Chief Executive, National Computer Board
2. Ms Siew Yim Cheng, Assistant Director (Industry and Manpower Division), National Computer Board
3. Mr Ng Kin Yee, Assistant Director (Programme Management Office and New Media), National Computer Board
4. Mr Mock Pak Lum, CEO, 1-Net
5. Mr Yap Tye San, Director (Technology), SingTel Magix
6. Mr Thomas Ee, Vice-President (Engineering), Singapore Cable Vision
7. Mr Lau Kai Cheong, Assistant Director (Network and Services), National Library Board
8. Mr Willie Png, Chairman Buona Vista Singapore ONE Club
.webp)