HI~Arts were crowned as joint Scottish Final Champions in the 'Public Sector' category of the Broadband Britain Challenge Awards this week.

The Inverness-based arts development agency won the award in recognition of its new Arts Journal website and its range of online services. Argyll and Bute Council was also recognised as champions in the Scottish awards.

The prize was awarded to members of the HI~Arts team at a ceremony in Edinburgh's Corn Exchange, who will now go forward to the national finals of the competition in London on 12th September.

The Broadband Britain Challenge is a nation-wide search to find Britain's brightest ADSL broadband users ­ people who have bettered their lives or the lives of others through the use of ADSL broadband technology at work, at home, in education or anywhere else.  The champions are chosen by a panel of experts, all of whom share a passion for broadband and its ability to re-shape the lives and business practices of users.

The HI~Arts Journal was launched in early June 2003 to bring the widest possible coverage of the arts and culture in the Highlands and Islands to a domestic and international audience.

The Journal is supported by the most comprehensive events database available for the north of Scotland, which HI~Arts has provided as an online resource since the late 1990s.  This events database now supplies information live to third party websites, such as the Highland Council website and Highlands and Islands Enterprise's family of sites.

The online services provided by the arts agency have developed in the last eighteen months to include an online Gallery Guide, discussion boards and a range of resources for practitioners in the arts sector.  Future initiatives include the establishment of a regional portal for the crafts sector in the Highlands and Islands, which will form the pilot for a national roll-out of a major online resource for the whole of Scotland. HI~Arts is also investigating the development of online ticketing for events in the Highlands and Islands.

HI~Arts' web resources are based on a content management system developed by Sitekit Solutions, a company operating from the Isle of Skye. Campbell Grant, CEO of Sitekit Solutions said:  "We are delighted that the HI~Arts site has been recognised in these important awards.  Like all good web sites, it is a combination of excellent design, advanced technology, good content and of course, great teamwork!  The site is based on the innovative Sitekit CMS website management platform that we have been developing for a number of years. This allows HI~Arts staff to manage and update the site directly on a daily or even hourly basis - which means that it is always up-to-date and accurate, and in turn makes it an essential reference site for its many users in the Highlands and Islands and beyond."

HI~Arts is supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Arts Council.