Comon wins Mediawijs Award for Innovation
Mediawijs presented the Mediawijs Awards for the seventh time in a row. In this way they want to give digital and media literacy promoting initiatives more recognition and visibility. We, at Comon are very proud to receive the Mediawijs Award for Innovation.
Comon wants to make Ghent even more "(media)wise"
There is no debate about it and now it has been confirmed once again: Ghent is the most "wise" city in the country. With Comon, we want to make Ghent even more "wise". Even more healthy. Even more pleasant... In short, even better. How? By listening to what the people of Ghent want or need. Exploring this together. And devising and testing technological solutions on a human scale. For and with the people of Ghent.
Tuupetegoare
That only happens if we work together. "Tuupetegoare", we say in Ghent. Who do we mean by that? Ghentians, policy makers from the City of Ghent, researchers from Ghent University and from imec, and the staff of Library De Krook together with Avansa regio Gent. People who normally don't meet often. But they all participate in Comon. And that is necessary if you want to realize crazy ideas.
To make care more accessibe and understandable, for example. This year hundreds of people worked together. By talking to each other a lot - in Dutch, Arabic, Turkish or English, but especially by doing a lot! Because at Comon we believe that innovation gains momentum as soon as people can hold something in their hands.
To this day, our teams are working on Dolox, a smart watch to record pain. On RingMe, a phone bot that helps you prepare for your doctor's visit in your own language. On ExplainMed, an app that converts your medical report into an understandable explanation. And on MIA, a digital matchmaker for patients and psychological caregivers.
Reward
So we are very proud to receive the Mediawijs Award for Innovation. It is a reward for:
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The City of Ghent, Ghent University, imec en Library De Krook who took the intiative
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the small team that drives Comon every day,
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the team from research group imec-mict-UGent, who worked with us to develop the method
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The King Baudouin Foundation, to give us a little push at the start
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The Open Innovation-team from the City of Ghent, to make us exceed expectations
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above all, for all those citizens, researchers and policymakers who participated from near and far.
Compliments from the jury
You don't win the Mediawise Award for Innovation for no reason. Comon receives this award because we connect various groups of citizens with technology. We are very proud of this because at Comon the Ghentian is central. Our approach does not go unnoticed by the jury: “Very strongly developed, innovative and participatory project with broad partnerships!”