The Webby Awards is an international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites, presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences since 1996. There is also a second set of awards called the People's Voice Awards for the same categories which are given by popular vote.

History

The phrase The Webby Awards was used from 1994-1996 by the World Wide Web Organization,^[1] which was first introduced in 1994 by WebMagic, Cisco Systems and ADX Kentrox. As one of its services, it sponsored "the monthly Webby awards to spotlight online innovation. Web.org was decommissioned in 1997.^[2][3]

The phrase The Webby Awards has been used since 1996 to describe an annual awards ceremony. It was initially sponsored by The Web magazine which was published by IDG, and produced by Tiffany Shlain. Winners were selected by a group which would officially become the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) in 1998. After The Web Magazine closed, the ceremonies continued.^[4]

In 2006, The Webby Awards launched three new award programs including categories honoring interactive advertising, mobile content, and the Webby Film and Video Awards, which honors original film and video premiering on the Internet. In 2008, the 12th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries worldwide.^[5]

Awards granted

Categories

The Webby Awards are presented in over 100 categories among all four types of entries. A website can be entered on multiple categories and receive multiple awards.^[6]

In each category, two awards are handed out: a Webby Award selected by a panel of judges, and a People's Voice Award selected by the votes of visitors to The Webby Awards site.^[7]

Acceptance speeches

The Webbys are famous for limiting recipients to five word speeches, which are often humorous. For example, in 2005, former Vice President Al Gore's was "Please don't recount this vote." He was introduced by Vint Cerf who used the same format to state, "We all invented the Internet."^[8] At the 2007 awards, David Bowie's speech was "I only get five words? Shit, that was five. Four more there. That's three. Two."^[9]

Criticism

The Webbys have been criticized for their pay-to-enter and pay-to-attend policies, and for not taking most websites into consideration before distributing their awards.^[10][11]

See also

• List of Webby Award winners
• International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
• Web Marketing Association WebAwards
• Interactive Media Awards

References

Further reading

• Joanna Glasner, "Usual Suspects Dominate Webbys" - Wired News, May 9, 2006
• Leslie Walker, "Webby Awards Salute Online Originality", Washington Post, June 8, 2003
• Jack Shafer, "What? You've Not Been Honored by the Webbys?", Slate Magazine, April 9, 2008

External links

• The Webby Awards (Official Website)
• 2007 Acceptance Speeches
• Current Webby Award Winners

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