Finalists for CNET Tech Awards get the nod

The finalists for the CNET Networks UK Technology Awards, organised by the publisher of silicon.com, have been announced, highlighting some of the most innovative users of IT in the UK as well as leading providers of products and services.

This year the awards - handed out on the evening of 27 September - will recognise organisations in distinct vertical markets including public sector, financial services, retail/leisure and telecoms as well as an overall CIO of the Year.

Technology-led awards see popular categories such as Mobile Product or Initiative of the Year and Security Product of the Year, as well Outstanding Contribution to Software Development and Open Source Initiative of the Year - the selection of which was made easier this time by the presence of open source guru Bruce Perens on the judging panel.

Outstanding Contribution to UK Technology can be voted for by readers of silicon.com and our sister site ZDNet UK on this page.

The full list of categories and candidates is as follows:

Public Sector Technology Project of the Year
Ashford Borough Council
Islington Council
The Causeway Programme
Truancy Call
West Yorkshire Police

Financial Services Technology Project of the Year
Chase de Vere Financial Solutions Plc
BNP Paribas
Experian
JPMorgan Chase
Royal Bank of Scotland

Retail/Leisure Sector Technology Project of the Year
Dominos Pizza / AKQA
British Airways Plc
Eagle Eye Solutions - 'BuyMeABeer'
Christopher Milton Stevens Ltd / E-Register
Harvey Nichols / Websense

Telecommunications Sector Technology Project of the Year
Caudwell Communications
O2 Ireland
Skype Technologies S.A
SpinVox
T-Mobile (UK) Ltd

Infrastructure Technology Product of the Year
ClearCube Technology
IBM UK eServer iSeries
Red Hat
XenSource Inc
Zeus Technology

Mobile Product or Initiative of the Year
Colubris Networks / Connexion by Boeing
Leeds City Council
PortWise
Research in Motion
SpectraLink

Networking/Storage Product of the Year
Aruba Networks
IBM UK Limited
Quest Software
Sandvine Incorporated

Security Product of the Year
Avoco Secure
Centennial Software
Netintelligence
Qualys Ltd
ScanSafe

Open Source Initiative of the Year
Cutter Project Ltd
JBoss Inc
OpenAdvantage
Openexchange Inc
XenSource Inc

Outstanding Contribution to Software Development
NoSoftwarePatents.com & The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)
Eclipse Project
Jumar Solutions Europe Ltd
CollabNet Inc
Transitive Ltd

Technology PR Campaign of the Year
Bite Communications - Apple
Brands2Life - WebEx
Chameleon PR - SpinVox
Cow PR - Yahoo! Mail
Fuse PR - Eleksen

Technology Marketing Campaign of the Year
AKQA - Nike
Blue Coat Systems
Mason Zimbler - Conchango
Worth - Viatel

CIO of the Year
Allan W Paterson - Isle of Man Government
Al-Noor Ramji - BT Group Plc
Guy Mason - English, Welsh and Scottish Railways
JP Rangaswami - Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Luke Mellors - The Dorchester

Outstanding Contribution to the UK Technology Industry
Vote online here.