Infoxchange Australia is recognised for the third year
in succession for it's world leading initiatives.

Green PC a social enterprise of Infoxchange Australia qualified as one of the finalists for Stockholm Challenge, the prestigious global awards programme that attracts IT-entrepreneurs from all over the world and that rewards best practice of information technology. Nearly 600 projects from 78 countries have given the international jury a hard task to evaluate and select the finalists and winners.

This is a record third year in a row that an initiative of Infoxchange Australia has been a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge. In 2000 Infoxchange Australia won for its work of using technology for social justice.

As one of the finalists, Green PC has been invited by the City of Stockholm to participate in the final events that will take place 7-10 October in Stockholm, Sweden.

Green PC is part of Infoxchange Australia's strategy to bridge the digital divide. This strategy has a number of community building elements including, empowerment through access to the new technologies, providing sustainable employment and educational opportunities for the long-term unemployed while also addressing environmental issues through recycling of discarded computer hardware.

Our strategy moves beyond the traditional solution of establishing common facilities through which low-income and disadvantaged people and communities share computers, and has a vision of making a computer available in every person's house, irrespective of income status. Only through such a plan can we develop a more equitable and just society as we move into a world that is progressively more dependent on technology, communication and access to information. To do this we work in partnership with organisations so the solution is inexpensive and simple. It is environmentally responsible, it has the potential to create hundreds of jobs and skill those who would otherwise be left unemployed, and it bridges the digital divide. Green PC has three clear goals: First, to reduce the digital divide by providing access to the new technologies to all those who want it in their own home. Second, to provide a sustainable job creation opportunity for long term unemployed people that provides a clear pathway to future employment in the technology sector. Third, to use this trained labour force to refurbish out-of-date second-hand computers so that they are Internet ready for people and organisations that have not previously been able to afford them because of income status.

In Stockholm, the Green PC showcased its solution on the Best Practice Exhibition, participate in the Global Forum together with the other finalist projects and international expertise, and attend the prize-giving ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall on 10 October, an event that will be streamed on the Internet in real-time at www.challenge.stockholm.se.

The Stockholm Challenge is an annual awards programme for pioneering IT projects in areas where IT has a great impact on people's lives. The participating projects show in practice how IT can be applied to social welfare and health care programs, or as a tool in favour of democracy. The Challenge seeks to abbreviate the gap between the information-rich and information-poor and seeks to spread the use of IT to larger groups in society.

For more information about the Green PC, please contact:

Andrew Mahar
Director
Infoxchange Australia
andrew@infoxchange.net.au
03 94187400

For more information about Green PC:
http://www.greenpc.com.au

For more information about The Stockholm Challenge Award:
http://www.challenge.stockholm.se