GoGeek Wins World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2020
King Khalid University, represented by the General Administration of Information Technology, recently won the WSIS Prizes 2020 award — co-organized with ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD — in the Capacity Building category, being one of five champion projects. At a high level, capacity building in this context refers to the facilitation of knowledge acquisition, empowering participants to obtain in-demand skills. The prize was awarded at the 2020 World Summit on the Information Society Forum, the world's largest annual gathering of the 'ICT for Development' community. Of note, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also brought home another award and seven certificates for several initiatives and projects.
Being responsible for King Khalid University's prestigious award, the GoGeek project aims to empower and offer Saudi youth the technical skills needed in today's world by creating continuous initiatives, regardless of their age and gender. GoGeek initiatives are tailored towards fostering nascent talents and strengthening the skills needed in today's competitive labor market. A big round of applause to our Information Technology team's hard work to develop Asir's competencies in programming smartphone applications, technical platforms, electronic games, and cybersecurity. CIO, Dr. Mohammed Alsaqer, expressed his happiness in winning this valuable award. He thanked all who participated in this project resulting in success at the international stage.
CIO Alsaqer explained that GoGeek first started with a technical bootcamp specialized in capacity building. That bootcamp lasted for four weeks and benefitted 14 people. The bootcamp was concluded with six technical projects. Then projects followed to include: electronic games, cybersecurity, spreading technical awareness in schools, and training graduates.
GoGeek contributed in building a technical community; it supported the culture of volunteering and digital giving (Attaa Digital). The project also formed partnerships in building and developing digital capabilities and creating technical environments.