dotCoop announces winners of Global Awards

DotCoop, the sponsor of the .coop domain name, has announced the winners of its Global Awards for the promotion of 'Co-operative Excellence' through the internet.

Co-operative Press, publishers of the Global News Hub and the printed Co-operative News, was singled out for its web address shortening service s.coop as winner of the small co-operative category (less than $1 million revenue). s.coop makes long links shorter using the .coop domain, making it easier to share websites through social networks, email and even for readers to type from printed reports or publications.

To date the service, which launched on March 23rd last year, has generated over 3.3 million clicks from almost 270,000 links that have been shortened — the majority of which are shared through social networks such as Twitter.

In the other categories, Columbian insurance co-operative La Equidad Seguros Organismo Cooperativo, which has more than 1.5m members won the large co-operative category (revenue more than $50m). Following a large number of outstanding entries, the dotCoop judges have also given honourable mention awards in the large co-operative category to CAC Dr. Manuel Zeno Gandia (Puerto Rico) and CROPP Cooperative (United States).

The Malaysian National Co-operative Movement (ANGKASA), which provides services to the members of the over 4,000 Malaysian co-ops, was the winner of the medium co-operative section ($1m-$50m revenue). Honourable mentions were given to First Alternative Cooperative (United States) and Rung’eto Farmers Co-operative Society Limited (Kenya).

In the small co-operative section, honourable awards were given to Café l’Artère (Canada) and Atrium São Paulo Cooperativa de Profissionais de Informática e Assessoria Técnica (Brazil).

A new category for co-operative organisations saw Brazil's Cooperativa Central de Crédito Urbano announced as the winner. CECRED works to integrate, monitor and support the development of credit co-operatives in Brazil as well as to develop and improve products and services to meet the needs of its cooperative members. Honourable mentions were also given to the Canadian Co-operative Association (Canada) and Singapore National Co-operative Federation (Singapore).

Anthony Murray, Online Editor for Co-operative Press, said: "Our s.coop service started as a small idea to create short links using the .coop domain for the printed edition of Co-operative News and has gradually transformed over the last 18 months into a platform that is used right across the world.

"We are immensely proud to receive this dotCoop award, especially alongside such a high calibre of winners which are all working in their own way to strengthen the co-operative voice online."

Carolyn Hoover, Chief Executive of dotCoop, added: “We received over 50 applications, from around the world and across cooperative sector. We’re extremely pleased with the turnout of this year’s competition.”

The awards will be presented on November 18th at the International Co-operative Alliance General Assembly in Cancun, Mexico. The winning co-operatives will receive funds to assist in their participation in the meeting as part of their award.

• For more details on the awards, visit: www.globalawards.coop.