The Urbana uniform city card and the Bicikelj self-service bike-borrowing system are the recipients of the 2012 Information Strawberries, awards for the best achievements in the information society field.

The awards were presented as part of the ‘Information Society 2012’ international conference, which is running from 8 to 12 October 2012 at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana.

As explained in the award reasoning, “Urbana is a uniform contactless smart card, which in Ljubljana, among the first in Europe, enables payment for city services such as using city buses, parking and library services. Ljubljana’s Bicikelj self-service bike-borrowing system enables the simple borrowing and return of bikes. The number of system users is approaching 15% of the population of Ljubljana, while the number of all uses will soon pass one million. 3 October saw a new record set – 4,113 uses in a single day”.

The Information Strawberry is an award for the best achievement affecting the general public in the information society field. It is awarded annually for achievements in the previous year. Nominations can be made by any member of the programme or organisational committees of the ‘Information Society’ conference. The nominations are gathered by the organisational committee president, who then presents them to both committees, and the winners are decided by a vote.