Breaking Borders Award
By Pulkit Sharma

While the Google search engine and its applications have done much to enlighten and democratize the world, it has run into severe road blocks in countries like China and India.  Google censors its results in China.  Google India has admitted that it ejected an Orkut Users Group without a court order because it felt that some of the comments could provoke violence.  Google India has taken a legal strategy of not backing some Indian bloggers in Indian courts by claming their blogging software was run from US and so under the jurisdiction of American courts which protect free speech.

Even as Google battles censorship in China and India, it has extended the deadline for its Breaking Borders Award to Feb 15, 2010. The Breaking Borders Award seeks to ‘recognise outstanding web projects by individuals or groups who have shown courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the internet to promote freedom of expression, making us aware of diverse political viewpoints and standing up to those who censor information. The prize will honor work in three categories: Tools that promote Freedom of Expression, outstanding work on Policy, and of course Activism or Journalism that contributed an important voice or argument - each awarded with USD $10,000.’

Any Indian individual or organization can apply for any of the 3 categories

Advocacy: given to an activist or group that has used online tools to promote free expression or encourage political change
Technology:  given to an individual or group that has created an important tool that enables free expression and expands access to information
Policy: given to a policy maker, government official or NGO leader who has made a notable contribution in the field