D Murphy wins £5,000 grant from TalkTalk for new internet TV channel about life in Swansea.Swansea resident will be honoured at House of Lords ceremony

D and Swansea Telly is now in with the chance of winning the £10,000 grand prize
16th November 2011: Swansea resident D Murphy has been named the winner of the TalkTalk Digital Heroes Award for Wales for her role in using digital technology to help others.

D Murphy received the most votes in Wales and has joined 11 other regional winners hoping to be crowned TalkTalk’s national Digital Heroes Awards 2011 winner at an event held on Thursday 24th November at the House of Lords.

As well as winning a technology grant of £5,000 to enhance her digital project, D is now in with a chance of winning the grand prize of £10,000, which is judged by a panel that includes dotcom entrepreneur and UK Digital Champion, Martha Lane Fox, and TalkTalk Chairman Charles Dunstone.

Swansea Telly is a new TV channel that makes free videos about life in Swansea. All the videos have been produced by people from Swansea as part of a digital inclusion project funded by the Welsh Government communities 2.0 programme.

Swansea Telly hosts filmmaking workshops in care homes, adult learning centres and community centres all over Swansea. There are 16 volunteer trainers, who have helped 100s of people in Swansea in filmmaking and ICT. The £5,000 will be used to purchase new equipment, such as laptops and camcorders to enable more workshops to take place.
The channel has been supported by Communities 2.0 – the Welsh Government programme that is helping communities and small enterprises to make the most of the internet.

Mark Smith, Public Engagement Officer, Communities 2.0 said: “We are delighted for D and the rest of the Swansea Telly team in winning this award. Swansea Telly is a great example of how people can be introduced to digital technologies in a way that they are comfortable with. The work of Swansea Telly is fun but informative and provides a new and innovative way of sharing stories that matter to communities in Swansea.”

Dido Harding, TalkTalk CEO, said: “We would like to congratulate D, as well as our other 11 regional winners. The Digital Heroes Awards was designed to recognise and reward those who use digital technology to make a difference in their communities. We’ve seen some incredibly worthy causes and we are delighted that these projects are getting the recognition they fully deserve.”

The TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards, run in conjunction with Citizens Online, is the only awards of its kind to celebrate inspirational people who are using digital technology to bring about positive social change.

The Twitter hashtag for the awards is #digitalheroes.

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