British Computer Society News

Communications and IT companies in shipping were toasted at the CITIS 2002 Awards in London in March with top honors going to a daily electronic newspaper, an evacuation simulator, a collision avoidance trainer and a message management concept. In addition to innovation awards in four categories, International Maritime Organization secretary general William O’Neil received a lifetime achievement award for overseeing the introduction of the Global Maritime Distress & Safety System. The winners, selected by expert judges from a shortlist of three in each category, were announced at a gala dinner at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre during the sixth CITIS event, organized by Lloyd’s List Events.

Internet shipbrokerage Levelseas is seeking to recoup payments from a sacked software developer, a move that illustrates the frustration many Internet start-ups have suffered in targeting the complex shipping industry. "The key to the issue is that they say the product works and we say it doesn't," Levelseas COO Kevin O'Connor said. "At the end of February we realized that CSC was unusable and we haven't used a single line of specification... or a single code," he added. CSC was unavailable to comment on Tuesday. Levelseas took the development of the world's first Internet ship-brokerage in-house in February and launched the finished product at the start of last month.