London, 3rd July 2009 - Charities, trade bodies and public sector departments are amongst the organisations recognised for their innovative and creative Internet projects at last night's Nominet Best Practice Challenge 2009 awards ceremony at the Banqueting House, Westminster, London.

The 2009 winners and commended entries will be promoted at the next international Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting in Sharm El Sheikh in November 2009. The aim is to share the best practice illustrated by innovative Internet achievements from the UK and inspire the other countries participating to follow these successful models.

This year's winners showcase a variety of world-class projects from Screenreader.net, a small organisation that has created a free software tool to help the visually impaired get easy access to the Internet, to the British Library, which has developed an interactive online tour that is central to its exhibition about individual freedom in the UK.

The categories and respective winners are:

• Best Development Project: Rafi.ki provides an online community for secondary schools that enables pupils and teachers from around the world to work on education projects.
• Best Security Initiative: Business Crime Reduction Centre has implemented a broad range of e-security initiatives and provides practical advice to small to medium enterprises.
• Raising Industry Standards: Internet Service Providers' Association has raised the standards of the ISP industry by promoting competition, better self-regulation and tackling issues of concern to the public.
• Personal Safety Online: Childnet International's KIDSMART website offers a wide range of interactive activities for young people to educate themselves about online safety issues.
• Internet For All: Screenreader.net develops free software tools to enable the visually impaired to benefit from computer technology.
• Open Internet: British Library created an online interactive tour for people to enjoy a virtual experience of its 2009 exhibition 'Taking Liberties: The Struggle for Britain's Freedoms and Rights'
• Special Award: Get Safe Online campaigns to educate, inform and raise awareness of Internet security issues amongst consumers and businesses. The judges praised its good interagency relationship with the private sector.

Lesley Cowley, CEO at Nominet says: "This year's entrants are of a high quality and show that the Internet industry in the UK is leading the world in addressing important issues such as digital inclusion and safety online. The self-regulatory environment in which this industry has thrived continues to enable such exciting projects to take root and grow. We are confident the other countries attending this year's IGF meeting in Egypt will be impressed and will be keen to find out more details about the BPC winners' projects."

The Rt Hon Alun Michael MP said: "The Nominet Best Practice Challenge Awards is a great resource for the Internet industry both nationally and internationally. It enables us to highlight exceptional initiatives which range from minute companies with just two employees to major companies, charities and public initiatives. Sharing this learning and best practice is what Britain's contribution to Internet governance is all about."

Also available:

• Our BPC 2009 brochure for further information on individual winners and runners up - see here.
• Video content and photography - issued on request.

Press Association is the media partner for Best Practice Challenge 2009.

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Notes to Editors

About the Best Practice Challenge
The Best Practice Challenge is an annual UK competition organised by Nominet that recognises organisations, groups or individuals who have embraced the challenge of delivering a safer, more accessible or diverse Internet experience.

About the Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was established by the United Nations to accommodate comprehensive multi-stakeholder policy dialogue in the field of Internet governance. It aims to bring together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate each year, whether they represent states, the private sector or civil society, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process.

About Nominet
Nominet operates at the heart of e-commerce in the UK, running one of the world's largest Internet registries and managing over seven million domain names. Nominet maintains the register of .uk domain names and runs the DNS infrastructure that keeps .uk working.

It runs the technology that locates a computer in the Internet hosting the web site or email system you're looking for when you type in a web address or send an email to an address that ends in .uk.

Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee that has members not shareholders, pays no dividends and its charges only cover its running costs. Anyone with an interest in the Internet may become a member. Nominet has over 2,800 members representing all areas of the Internet industry.

Nominet also runs the Tier 1 registry for UK ENUM, a new UK registry service that combines telephone numbers and the Domain Name System to simplify the way telephone calls over the Internet work. ENUM lets callers know that you can receive VoIP calls - it allows more VoIP calls to be connected directly over the Internet, for no charge, rather than via the traditional PSTN network.

About The Press Association (Nominet's media partner for the Best Practice Challenge)
The Press Association is the national news agency for the UK and Ireland, providing a continuous feed of text, pictures, video and data into newsrooms around the country. At the heart of the media industry, the Press Association supplies services to every national and regional daily newspaper, broadcasters, online publishers and a wide range of commercial organisations. Founded in 1868, the Press Association has an unrivalled reputation for providing fast, fair and accurate information.

The Press Association and PA Business are part of the PA Group Limited, a private company with 27 shareholders, most of whom are national and regional newspaper publishers. The biggest shareholders are Associated Newspaper Holdings Limited, News International plc, Trinity Mirror plc and United Business Media plc.For further information, please contact:

Gemma Griffiths or Elissa Fry at Racepoint Group

Tel: 020 8752 3200

Email: nominet@racepointgroup.co.uk