1. BASIC CONCEPTS USED IN THIS REGULATION
Award — the Culture Online International Award.
Organizer — the National Public-State Organization Russian Cultural Foundation (hereinafter referred to as Russian Cultural Foundation).
Application — the list of required documentation and information about the project for participation in the Award.
Participants — individuals and organizations of all types of ownership that nominate their projects for the Award.
List of Participants/Projects — the list of projects formed by the Contest Committee based on received Applications.
Contest Committee — the group of experts appointed by the Organizer of the Award to collect, evaluate, and assign the participants’ applications.
Expert Council — the collegial body established by the Organizer from the invited experts to judge the projects and establish the Finalists and Winners of the Award in each nomination.
Winners — projects that scored the highest number of points, according to the Expert Council.
2. GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE AWARD.
2.1. These Rules and Regulations define the procedure for organizing and conducting the “Culture Online” International Award (hereinafter referred to as the “Award”).
2.2. The Award was established by the Russian Cultural Foundation in response to the accelerated development of cultural digitalization.
2.3. The Award aims to encourage cultural institutions and individuals who actively incorporate online technologies in their work and to recognize significant projects in the cultural field that are carried out using the most modern IT resources.
2.4. Cultural institutions, creative unions, public organizations, associations, bloggers, and other organizations and individuals who have implemented projects in the cultural field are invited to participate.
2.5. Information about the Award is published in federal, regional, and international media, on the Internet, and the official website of the Russian Cultural Foundation (rcfoundation.ru).
3. AWARD NOMINATIONS
3.1. Submission Categories
Best Online Project 2024: Projects operating online in theater, music, and cinema are eligible for the Award in this category.
Best Collaboration: Online projects in the cultural sphere, implemented by two or more companies, and projects combining offline and online activities can be submitted for the Award in this category.
Best IT Solution for the Cultural Sector: The nomination is open to projects using digital technologies, Blockchain technologies, VR/AR, mobile applications, online games, etc.
Best Social Media Campaign: Blogs on social media platforms are eligible for the Award in this category.
Best Education and Outreach Project: Education and outreach projects that offer online lectures, masterclasses, training courses, programs, etc., are eligible for the Award in this category.
Best Livestreaming Project: This category is for projects that broadcast cultural events in real time from the venue through the Internet.
Best AI Integration in Culture: A cultural project that utilizes neural networks, generative algorithms, and other AI technologies may be nominated for the Award in this category.
Special Prize of the Russian Cultural Foundation: The Russian Cultural Foundation will choose the Winner of this nomination from all the projects submitted for the Award.
3.2. The Organizer of the Award reserves the right to establish additional nominations in the Contest. Special prizes may be awarded at the discretion of the Expert Council.
4. AWARD IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURE
4.1. Deadlines for the Award are determined and approved by the Organizer of the Award.
4.2. The Award is held in several stages:
Stage I. Collection and review of Applications. The list of participants is formed from June 17 to September 30, 2024. The Organizer reserves the right to include or exclude projects submitted after the deadlines established by these Rules and Regulations.
Stage II. The list of projects admitted to the expert evaluation of projects for each nomination is formed from October 01 to October 09, 2024.
Stage III. The List of Finalists for each category and the list of Winners of the Award is determined from October 10 to October 18, 2024.
Stage IV. Award finalists are announced by October 24, 2024.
Stage V. The awarding ceremony for the Winners of the Award will take place on November 15, 2024.
4.3. The Organizer reserves the right to amend the dates of the Award.
5. SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE AWARD
5.1. Projects launched since September 23, 2023, and up to the present are eligible to participate in the Award.
5.2. Applications are submitted online on the website of the “Culture Online” International Award. https://culturaonline.ru (hereinafter referred to as the “Website”)
5.3. The written confirmation from the address award@culturaonline.ru, sent in response to the Application submission, is the official confirmation of the entry in the List of Participants.
5.4. Each Participant has the right to nominate several projects in the same or different categories, but one project cannot be submitted in different categories simultaneously.
5.5. Any application that does not meet the requirements stated in the competition regulations will be considered a violation of the Award’s conditions and may result in the rejection of the Application based on the Organizer’s decision.
5.6. The Participant of the Award shall be disqualified from participation at any stage of the Award if this person has submitted false, incomplete or fraudulent information or has acted unlawfully when submitting the Application (including those specified in clause 5.8).
5.7. The Participant of the Award shall be disqualified from participation in the Award at any stage of the Award in case of an attempt of the Participant of the Award to influence (using rank, corporate, financial or any other means) the members of the Contest Committee and the Expert Council during the evaluation of the projects.
5.8. By submitting the Application and participating in the Award, the Participant:
5.8.1 Confirms that the project and its demonstration during the Award do not violate any third parties’ rights and legitimate interests.
5.8.2 Undertakes not to commit other violations of the current legislation of the Russian Federation, including legislation on the media, intellectual property, advertising, etc.
5.8.3 Undertakes not to publish or distribute information and materials that are not related to the Award, that are offensive to other participants of the Award, that contain obscene language, that promote incitement of racial, religious, ethnic hatred or enmity, criminal activity, that damage the honor, dignity and business reputation of other persons, that violate the rights and legitimate interests of the Award participants or third parties, that are aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens and to maintain international peace and security.
5.9. The Award Organizer reserves the right not to admit a project to the List of Participants without providing an explanation.
6. PROJECT EVALUATION CRITERIA
6.1. Award Criteria:
| Criteria | Maximum score |
| Innovation | 10 |
| Audience coverage (media coverage, number of subscribers, views, downloads, etc.) | 10 |
| Cultural value | 10 |
| Scalability/Potential | 10 |
| Social Significance | 10 |
| User Experience | 10 |
6.2. The projects are evaluated online, and voters use personal accounts created by the Organizer on the Award portal.
6.2.1. A unified voting platform is provided for all members of the Competition Committee.
6.2.2. Each member of the Expert Council has a personal voting account.
6.3. There are two project evaluation steps:
Stage I. Evaluation of all projects included in the list of participants by members of the Competition Commission.
Stage II. Evaluation of the list of projects formed according to the results of the voting of the Competition Commission by the members of the Expert Council.
6.4. Stage I of the project evaluation is conducted per the following regulations:
6.4.1. The members of the Competition Commission get access to a single personal account, where a list of projects admitted for evaluation is formed, including all the information about the project formed from the application information.
6.4.2. After reviewing the materials from the project application, the members of the Competition Commission give the projects points for each criterion based on the information provided by the Participant.
6.4.3. The projects with the highest number of points, based on the voting results by all members of the Competition Commission, are admitted to expert evaluation.
6.4.4. The number of projects admitted for the Expert Evaluation in each nomination should be at least ten and at most twenty.
6.4.5. The Organizer uploads the completed list of projects to the members of the Expert Council’s personal accounts and sends it to them for further evaluation.
6.5. Stage II of the project evaluation is conducted per the following regulations:
6.5.1. Each member of the Expert Council gets access to a single personal account, where a list of projects admitted for evaluation is formed, including all the information about the project formed from the application information.
6.5.2. The members of the Expert Council assign points to projects for each criterion based on the materials provided by the Participant.
6.6. The results of the projects’ evaluations by the members of the Expert Council are uploaded to the online form on the Award portal, where the list of finalists and winners for each nomination is further formed.
6.7. No more than five projects in each nomination, which scored the highest points by summing up the points for each criterion from all members of the Expert Council, are eligible to be included in the List of Finalists.
7. VOTING RESULTS AND WINNERS SELECTION
7.1. The Winner of the Award is the project with the highest total score received after summing up the scores for each criterion from all members of the Expert Council.
7.2. In the event of an equal score between two or more Participants of the Award and if the Winner of the Award cannot be determined, the Organizers of the Award reserve the right to determine the Winner among the Participants who received the same number of points at their discretion. The Organizer’s decision is final and is not subject to challenge (appeal).
7.3. Information about the voting results shall not be made public before the Award Ceremony (hereinafter also referred to as the Gala Ceremony).
8. AWARDING THE WINNERS
8.1. The winners of the Award are announced and awarded at the Award Ceremony.
8.2. The Winners receive an award set separately in each category.
9. CONTACT INFORMATION
9.1. Official e-mail address (for resolving any issues related to the conditions, the procedure and other information about the Award): award@culturaonline.ru