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About the .ie Digital Town Programme

We are a committed advocate of the benefits of the internet and digital technology for local communities, governments and businesses. Through our initiative, the .ie Digital Town Programme, we seek to empower these groups, help them make better use of digital technology and celebrate the communities, groups, towns and villages that successfully integrate an element of digital into social and commercial life.

These ambitions are achieved by two specific pillars of activity currently underway – the Awards, and the Blueprint.

.ie Digital Town Awards

The .ie Digital Town Awards are the first pillar of activity under .ie Digital Town which has been developed to address digital enhancement and adoption in Ireland.

The Awards promote awareness, knowledge, use and understanding of digital in Ireland by its citizens, businesses and communities. They also highlight the benefits and possibilities of digital and celebrate the digital achievements of local towns, big and small.

Digital offers the opportunity to create new ways of doing things, promote innovation and breathe new life into local communities, making them more attractive places to live and work as well as contributing to a more sustainable future. They are also a chance to recognise and show appreciation to the volunteers across the country who devote their spare time working tirelessly to enhance their local area, towns and villages and we have seen some great examples of towns that are using digital to fight back and use online resources to help renew and invigorate their local town.

The Awards have evolved from our previous .ie Digital Town activities which you can read more about.

 

.ie Digital Town Blueprint

The second pillar of activity is the .ie Digital Town Blueprint.  The goal is define a digital town, to develop the metrics to measure a town’s digital readiness; and quantify the effects of digital on a town’s local economy, society, and culture.

To help town leaders and policymakers embed their own digital town programmes and action plans in empirical data, .ie partnered with the DCU Irish Institute of Digital Business to fully explore the concept and value of the “digital town” through a comprehensive research project. It is the first research of its kind in Europe.

You can read more about it on our .ie Digital Town Blueprint page.

Now closed

The .ie Digital Town Awards 2024 is now closed for entries. Stay tuned for announcement of finalists in April 2024.

Previous winners
Case studies