The Hong Kong Observatory takes honour to receive a Gold Award in the Best Public Service Application (Most Favored) category of the 2007 Hong Kong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Awards yesterday (21 January 2008) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.  The Best Public Service Application Award was organized by the IT Division of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers.  The judging panel of the competition commended that the Observatory's website provides citizens with accurate and timely weather information, as well as education materials on weather awareness.

The HKO website has been providing the public with relevant and reliable weather information since its launch in 1996. Its clientele has been growing steadily with time. In 2007, the number of page visits surpassed the one billion mark which was equivalent to almost three million visits per day on average, making the HKO website the most popular Government website in Hong Kong.

With over 35,000 webpages, the HKO website is packed with information. Apart from the pages on latest weather forecasts, one-stop portals are also offered to serve senior citizens, schools and other sectors. In 2008, HKO's objective is to enhance its service to mobile platforms so that people on the move can maintain in contact with the HKO website and obtain the latest weather information using PDAs or smartphones.

Moreover, the Lightning Location Information Service of the Observatory was awarded the Best Public Service Application (Small Scale Project) Certificate of Merit.  The Observatory makes use of webpage to provide near real-time lightning information in a graphical form.  It also offers the first ever location-specific lightning alarming service for the public of Hong Kong.  Users can select an area of interest and they will be automatically alerted when lightning appears in the area.

Mr. H.G. Wai, Assistant Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (left) receiving the Best Public Service Application Gold Award from Ir Dr. Samson TAM, JP, Chairman of Information Technology Division, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.

Trophies awarded to the Hong Kong Observatory