| The Webby Awards | |
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Webby Awards logo |
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| Awarded for | "Excellence on the Internet including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile content."[1] |
| Presented by | International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences |
| First awarded | 1996 - Present (International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences) |
| Official website | webbyawards.com |
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile.[1]
Two winners are selected in each category, one by members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and one by the public who cast their votes during Webby People’s Voice voting.[1]
The award is one of the older and better-known internet-oriented awards and has come to be associated with the phrase "The Oscars of the Internet".[2][3][4]
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The Webby's were founded by Tiffany Shlain when she was hired by the The Web Magazine (an IDG Publication) to establish the awards. The event was held in San Francisco from 1996 to 2004 and quickly became known for their "5 word Acceptance Speeches". After the first year the awards became more successful than the magazine and IDG closed the publication. Shlain continued to run The Webby Awards with the help of Maya Draisin until 2004. [5] [6]
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which selects the winners of The Webby Awards, was established in 1998 by co-founders Tiffany Shlain, Spencer Ante and Maya Draisin. [7] Members of the Academy include David Bowie, Martha Stewart, Harvey Weinstein, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Biz Stone, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson, and R/GA Chairman and CEO Bob Greenberg.[1]
Since 2005, The Webby Awards has been operated and owned by Recognition Media, which also operates the Telly Awards and other awards programs.[8] In 2006, The Webby Awards launched new categories honoring interactive advertising and original film and video that premiered on the Internet.
In 2007, The Webby Awards launched new categories honoring mobile Websites.
In 2009, the thirteenth Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries.[9] That same year, over 500,000 votes were cast in The Webby People's Voice Awards.[10]
Thousands of entries are submitted during the Call for Entries procession, and each is first rated by Associate Members of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Entries that receive the highest marks during this first round of voting are included on category-specific shortlists and further evaluated by Executive Members of the Academy.
Executive Academy Members with category-specific expertise evaluate the shortlisted entries based on the appropriate Website, Interactive Advertising & Media and Film & Video criteria, and cast ballots to determine Webby Honorees, Nominees and Webby Winners. Price Waterhouse Coopers audits the results.
In addition to the award given in each category by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, another winner is selected in each category as determined by the general public during People’s Voice voting. Winners of both the Academy-selected and People’s Voice-selected awards are invited to the Webbys.[11]
The Webby Awards are presented in over a hundred categories among all four types of entries. A website can be entered in multiple categories and receive multiple awards.
In each category, two awards are handed out: a Webby Award selected by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and a People's Voice Award selected by the general public.[12]
Past winners include Amazon.com, eBay, SimplyHired.com, Kayak.com, Yahoo!, iTunes, Google, FedEx, BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Annie Lennox, NPR, Salon Magazine, Facebook, Meetup, Wikipedia, Flickr, ESPN, Comedy Central, PBS, The Onion News Network, The Office Webisodes, and My Damn Channel.
Each year, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences also honors individuals with Webby Special Achievement Awards. Past Webby Special Achievement winners include Al Gore, Prince, David Bowie, Meg Whitman, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Lorne Michaels, Craig Newmark, Thomas Friedman, Stephen Colbert, Michel Gondry and the Beastie Boys.[12]
Since 2005, The Webby Awards has been presented in New York City.[13] Comedian Rob Corddry hosted the ceremony from 2005 to 2007. Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live hosted in 2008 and 2009, and in 2010 the host was B.J. Novak of NBC's The Office.[14]
The Webbys are famous for limiting recipients to five-word speeches, which are often humorous, although some exceed the limit. In 2005 when accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award, former Vice President Al Gore's speech 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."[15] In 2008, Stephen Colbert shouted “Me. Me. Me. Me. Me”[16] when accepting his award for Webby Person of the Year. Accepting the award for Best Political Blog in 2008, Arianna Huffington’s speech was “President Obama ... Sounds good, right?"[16]
Other popular speeches include "Can anyone fix my computer?"[17] (the Beastie Boys); "Everything you think is true"[18] (Prince); "Thank God Conan got promoted"[19] (Jimmy Fallon), "Free, open... Keep one Web"[19] (Sir Tim Berners Lee), “Holy - Fucking - Shit, Buzz Aldrin"[20] (Jake Hurwitz), and "Holocaust. Did it happen? Yes." (Sarah Silverman).
The Webbies have been criticized for their pay-to-enter and pay-to-attend policy (winners and nominees also have to pay to attend the award ceremony), and thus for not taking most websites into consideration before distributing their awards.[21][22][23] Gawker, its Valleywag column, and others, have called the awards a scam, with Valleywag saying, "...somewhere along the way, the organizers figured out that this goofy charade could be milked for profit."[24]
In response, Webby Awards Executive Director David-Michel Davies told the Wall Street Journal that entry fees “provide the best and most sustainable model for ensuring that our judging process remains consistent and rigorous and is not dependent on things like sponsorships that can fluctuate from year to year.”[23]
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