At the event, which took place last week in the Casa de América in Madrid, representatives from the winning entities shared center stage with Supercibermax, a technological super-hero. Between them, and supported by a varied and lively group of characters, they added a colorful note to the theatrical sketches that were presented before the awards.

The six categories of the awards were:

• Community Involvement: This recognizes initiatives in which technology has helped develop offline social action by boosting networking or promoting social innovation. Award winners were the Fundación Vodafone, Qualcomm, the Spanish Red Cross and the Fundación Tecsos, for their project 3G para Todas las Generaciones (3G for all generations).

• Corporate Volunteer Work: This award recognizes initiatives in which technology can be a tool for attracting, training and supporting volunteers, and extending their communication and participation. The BBVA Volunteer Office received an award in this category for its Alfabetización Tecnológica para Inmigrantes (Technological literacy for immigrants) initiative.

• Development: This recognizes projects that assist development aid, the universalization of knowledge or the achievement of the Millennium Goals through the use of technology. The winning entity was Mozilla, with its Mozilla Service Week.

• Culture: This recognizes initiatives that promote the spread of cultural activities and education through technological resources or tools. The award winner in this category for the second year in a row was Fundación Orange, this time for its project Cine Accesible (Accessible cinema).

• Communication: This recognizes initiatives that report, raise awareness and spread knowledge through blogs, mailing, social networks or online campaigns. The winners were the Fundación Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Seur, El Mundo and Directo del Campo, for Agenda Viva Digital (Live digital agenda).

• Environment: This award is given to projects in which technology has helped reduce climate change, increase corporate sustainability and promote respect for the environment. The winner was the Multisectoral Association of Information, Communication and Electronics Technology Companies (Asimelec) for its project Asimelec y su compromiso con el medio ambiente y la sostenibilidad (Asimelec and its commitment to the environment and sustainability).

Those attending, including last year’s winners and this year’s candidates, shared their experiences and debated the role of IT in corporate social responsibility strategies, as an added value in any business strategy and still an unresolved question.

These and other conclusions by the participants can be accessed via Twitter, as can the concluding remarks by Miguel Ángel Martínez de la Riva, representative of the Ministry of Labor and Immigration, and those by the President of the Fundación Cibervoluntarios, Yolanda Rueda, who participated by videoconference from Mexico.

Cibervoluntarios Foundation

Cibervoluntarios Foundation is an independent non-profit entity whose mission is to use new technologies as a means for social innovation and human development. It does so by focusing on the goal of everyone having equal access to and knowledge of new technologies in order to bridge the digital gap and promote the knowledge society.

Currently it has more than 1,700 cibervolunteers, who act as agents of social change by using new technologies as a tool for resolving underlying social problems. By giving course, talks, conferences, workshops, events, seminars etc. they personally show the possibilities offered by the use of new technologies in a useful, simple and effective way for the everyday work of groups who otherwise have little chance of access or training in this field.