Dear iProA Members and Friends,

At the beginning of September, Dr. Elizabeth Quat and myself were extremely privileged to participate in the final round of judging of the World Summit Award 2007 (WSA). The Grand Jury met on the island of Brijuni, Croatia from 1-7 September and evaluated 650 entries from 160 countries. 5 winners were selected in each of the 8 WSA Categories and I am extremely proud to announce that China managed to secure a winner in 3 different categories. Of special note is that among these 3 winners from China is Hong Kong's very own entry – "DigitalCopyright.hk, One Stop Digital Content Marketplace", which was 1 of the winners in the e-Business Category.

In celebration of this achievement, an award ceremony was hosted within the 2007 China Internet Conference (CIC) on 24 September in Beijing. The CIC was organized by the Internet Society of China and co-organized by iProA. This year, we arranged a delegation to participate in the event. Overall, I am pleased to announce that the conference was a tremendous success and am encouraged by the experience sharing between our Hong Kong delegates and Mainland Chinese compatriots. Present at the award ceremony on the afternoon of the 24 September was Mr. Gao Xinmin, Vice Chairman of Internet Society of China and Mr. Sun Yongge, Director of Administrative Services Department, Internet Society of China. Dr. Quat gave a brief introduction of the WSA and the awards were presented by Mr. Gao.

In the final quarter of the year, we will be devoting our major efforts toward iProA's Digital Lifestyle Initiative. Currently, we are in the midst of preparing a showcase event to be held in late November in Cyberport. Working together with Poly U's School of Design and HKIE's IT Division, we feel confident that the event with be a success. This will be our first step in commencing industry, academia and community discussion as well as action transforming Hong Kong into a regional hub for Digital Lifestyle development.

Best regards,

Dr. Winnie Tang

President

Internet Professional Association

iProA Newsletter: October 2007