Tuesday 17 July, 2001
The Webbys – The Awards With A Difference
The Webby Awards, the event of the digerati calendar, are taking place in San Francisco today and tomorrow. Now in its fifth year, the "Oscars for the internet" aim to showcase the best websites from around the world.
But as Online Journalist, Kelly Shephard, explains this isn't your average award ceremony.
Ceremony
According to a recent report published in the trade magazine Variety, the entertainment industry presented more than 4,000 awards in more than 550 ceremonies throughout the year 2000. That works out at an average of one prize every two hours.
From the glittering film world of Cannes, to the music industry Grammys and screen awards such as the Baftas – the world loves an award, but not everyone loves an award ceremony.
In 1996, when Tiffany Shlain, the creator of The Webby Awards, had the idea to devise an award for the best internet sites she was faced with a dilemma:
'I hated award shows personally' she recently commented. 'It was almost like my conundrum. The challenge I set forth was an award show that I would be interested in watching.'
Speeches
The resulting awards ceremonies have inevitably differed from the proliferation of mutual adoration events.
With a five word limit on acceptance speeches there is little room to thank parents, producers and friends, let alone shed a tear. Time is certainly of the essence as Shlain explained recently to a British newspaper:
'I hated acceptance speeches. The internet is all about speed and time is such a commodity.'
'For consumers overwhelmed by the internet, we shine a light on the best for them.'
Tiffany Shlain, creator of The Webby Awards | |
Nominations
As with other award ceremonies the Webbys are divided into categories. From an initial 19 in 1996, this years nominations fall into 27 sections.
As well as the online community being given the chance to vote for their favourite site in The People's Voice Awards, nominees are judged in a range of categories including “activism”, “broadband”, “government and law”, “personal web sites” and “print and zines”.
So, a selection of the nominees, are...
Radio
大象传媒 World Service competes against COMFM, Fresh Air, StormLive and Youth Radio for the title of best radio site.
News
大象传媒 News Online has been nominated in the news category alongside CNN, Salon, Inside and CNET News.
Finance
Fighting it out in the finance category are CBS Marketwatch, Motley Fool and Yahoo! Finance, while commerce includes Travelocity, Half.com, mySimon, CafePress and GorpTravel.
Weird
Nominations in the weird category include various reports of strange phenomena at Weird N.J, Fortean Times Online and Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. Meanwhile Peter Pan's Home Page has also been nominated, where American Randy Constan can be seen dressed as his favourite fairy tale character.
Humour
In the humour category sites such Modern Humorist and National Lampoon will vie for laughs as they are pitched against last year's winner, Onion.
Accepting the award last year for the online humour magazine, Mike Loew found the five word restriction somewhat limiting as he made his acceptance saying, 'They said I could only…'
Judges
Members from The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences will judge the awards. It has 350 members, drawn from a range of professions and includes names such as Francis Ford Coppola, Bjork and The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
From the five nominees in each category, the judges will select one winner. Whilst recognising that selection can not be an exact science, The Academy will make its decisions based on the following six criteria - content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall experience.
Speaking to 大象传媒 News Online, Academy director Maya Draisin clearly outlined the objective of the Webbys when she said:
'With the internet undergoing major change, The Webby Awards are needed now more than ever to help people avoid the hype and to enjoy the websites that are the most outstanding, entertaining and useful.'
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| The 大象传媒's Nominees |
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Radio:
大象传媒 World Service competes against COMFM, Fresh Air, StormLive and Youth Radio for the title of best radio site.
News:
大象传媒 News Online has been nominated in the news category alongside CNN, Salon, Inside and CNET News. |
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| When, Where, How |
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The fifth annual Webby awards take place at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco today and tomorrow.
The winners are selected by members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
But how did the winners become the nominees, in the first place?
The selection process involves a very rigorous six-month evaluation period.
The first phase of the process entails producing a short list out of the thousands of sites submitted during the Call For Entries.
Then, five nominating judges rate their favorite five sites.
Finally, each member of The Academy casts one decisive vote for the best of five nominees in any category...
The sites with the highest number of votes win.
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大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external Internet
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