Webby Awards pay tribute to the Internet’s best
You may remember when the internet was in its infancy, and very much a novelty. Back then search engines were not very sophisticated and a favourite activity was “surfing the net” and following links to try to find truly interesting or artistic websites. It took a long time to discover and bookmark a few amazing websites. These days people tend to use a few sites for online shopping, social networking, and information and rarely search for brilliant examples of website creation. That’s why the Webby Awards is such a welcome yearly event.
Often referred to as the Oscars of the Internet, the Webby Awards (www.webbyawards.com) began in 1997 when internet designer and reporter Tiffany Schlain was given the assignment by The Web magazine, now defunct, to come up with a way of honouring the best of the internet.
She barely raised enough money to hold the ceremony and only managed to give out 15 awards. But she had come up with a winning concept and this year is the 21st annual ceremony with awards in hundreds of categories within the six media types of Websites, Online Film and Video, Advertising and Media, Mobile Sites and Apps, Social, and Podcasts and Digital Audio.
As might be expected, many of the award categories now reflect the predominant use of mobile devices with their diminutive touch screens to access and experience the internet.
The judging is carried out by over 2000 voting members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (www.iadas. net), which includes celebrities and entrepreneurs such as Kevin Spacey, Sir Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Jimmy Kimmel, and Vint Cerf, reputed to be the inventor of the internet.
The awards will be presented at a glitzy affair in New York City on May 15 and the next day viewers can visit the Webby Awards website to see the whole show or highlights, including the often quirky five word acceptance speeches.
You may not be interested in watching the awards but you can browse all of the nominations and winners at the Webby website and spend hours clicking or tapping away and viewing a vast number of occasionally stunning websites and online videos.
Unfortunately, the great irony is that the website honouring the internet’s best can be an irritating and difficult challenge to navigate. You can go to the Webby site, click on view the winners, and begin scrolling down a monstrous illustrated list of every category in the media types.
However, if you mouse over or tap on the media types at the top of the list you should see the full list of categories drop down and quickly go to the winner and nominees in each. Using a mouse on my laptop was tricky enough but the process became problematic when I used the touch screen on my iPad and I often found myself bounced into categories I hadn’t chosen.
In any case, despite the trials of the website, I did manage to spend a great deal of time visiting and experiencing outstanding examples of the internet at its best. The National Geographic Society was the big winner with 11 awards including in the Social group the best use of photography and graphics (http://tinyurl. com/ksccalo) and animals (http:// tinyurl.com/ldycmfb). You can see a list of the awards the National Geographic won at its website (https://tinyurl.com/n5nx3ds).
In the Activism category in Websites the winner was Women’s Footprint in History (http:// tinyurl.com/k9f85v7), created by UN Women which is striving to empower women around the world.
The popular favourite among internet users for the Best Use of Video or Moving Images in Websites was Google’s visually stunning The Hidden Worlds of National Parks (http://tinyurl.com/hwebok). However, the Academy’s choice in this category was the distiller Hennessy’s site named Mastered From Chaos (https://masteredfromchaos.com), although you’ll have to prove you’re at least 21 years of age to enter the site.
No matter what your interests, whether they be online videos, marketing, or social activism, the Webby awards will let you explore what is considered the best that the internet has to offer.