THE website for the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), located at www.jis.gov.jm, was adjudged the Best Website Representing a Nation last Tuesday.

The winning site was chosen from a field of seven websites that were nominated for the award.

Recognised in the Culture Category in the Black Web Awards (BWA), the JIS was one of more than 500 websites from across the world that were nominated by the awarding organisation, Linton Publications out of Baltimore, Maryland in the United States.

The organisation launched the BWA this year to celebrate African, African-American and Caribbean online excellence in some 100 categories.

CEO of the agency, Carmen Tipling, said that she was proud of the achievement. Giving kudos to the JIS Computer and Research Services team, she said that, “they constructed and are maintaining an excellent website, which operates as a mini-portal for access to all Government of Jamaica ministries and agencies”.

Tipling said the website, which hosts more than 3,000 pages, with links to all CARICOM member states, took a great deal of “smart work and dedication” to ensure that it could house user-friendly and ready-to-use information in a manner that was easily retrievable by its visitors, which include thousands of Jamaicans in the Diaspora.

Outlining the groundwork that culminated in the award-winning website, she said that in the year 2000, the agency had embarked on a major thrust to modernise the information organisation, including its information mini-portal.

“A plan of work was outlined by KPMG, our modernisation consultants, who identified a number of goals we were to achieve within a set time,” Tipling said, adding that these targets were met within three years.

“We achieved all of these within this time period and have gone beyond that to set and meet our own targets on an annual basis,” she said.

The CEO emphasised that it was through the efficient use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that the agency was gleaning, gathering and disseminating information to the public.

“It is heartening that significant changes are taking place at the JIS and modernisation is helping government entities, such as the JIS, to package and deliver information at levels that were not previously accessed by the public,” she said.

Computer and research services manager at the JIS, Andrea Bryan, said it was a phenomenal accomplishment for the JIS to win such an award on its maiden attempt. She said the nomination in itself was elating, but winning the award was even more spectacular.

“This is a fabulous achievement,” she said, adding that she was proud that the combined 20 working hours per day for the five-member department had been recognised by an international award.

“We update the website on a daily basis. This includes more than 20 new releases per day as well as special pages that we maintain for the 14 ministries of government and their related agencies,” Bryan said.