‘Election Tallies’ – a joint project by Institute of Technology Sligo and Ocean FM has scooped the Innovation Award at the 2014 eGovernment Awards. Sponsored by eircom Business Solutions, the Awards – which were presented at Dublin Castle by an Taoiseach Enda Kenny – are jointly run by the Public Sector Times and digital marketing company Elucidate, and recognise excellence and innovation by public sector bodies who are pioneering change in the delivery of eGovernment services in Ireland.
The project was developed by lecturers from IT Sligo in close consultation with Ocean FM, and revolutionized the station’s ability to provide listeners with real time election tally figures for the 2014 local elections.
Using Microsoft’s cloud computing system Azure, the team were able to upload tallies the moment they were generated to the Ocean FM website.
It’s the first time ever, that anyone with access to the website, could access tally figures as they were fed into the master system at the count centre.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Bill Archer, Managing Director, eircom Business Solutions said: “It is really encouraging to see such a diverse range of government agencies embrace technology to drive change and improve access for citizens to public information and services. The Sligo IT/Ocean FM project showed exactly how this can be done by using technology innovatively to share information and I congratulate them on their win. As a partner to many government departments and agencies, we understand how important it is to enhance service delivery in a climate that is more dynamic and demanding than ever before.”
Commenting on the win, Padraig Harte, lecturer with IT Sligo said: “Winning the Innovation Award is testament to the talent and dedication of our team at IT Sligo and Ocean FM. The project was a huge success and demonstrated the demand for instant access to election tallies, with the Ocean FM website receiving a phenomenal 780,000 page views, so we are thrilled to be recognised for our work.”