Webbys Serve as Litmus of How Far Internet Has Come

The hoopla of the Internet’s biggest night of the year is over, but the winners of the Webby Awards--held last week in San Francisco--are still reveling in their net gains. Sites that won the online industry’s most coveted prize haven’t reported a huge spike in traffic or a sudden surge in venture capital funding as a result of the spiral-shaped award. Instead, they have gained something less tangible, but perhaps just as valuable, especially at a time when many Web stock options are losing their luster.

“The Webby is a great validation, and a great reward for a lot of hard work,” said Scott Roesch, director of Web entertainment for AtomFilms (https://www.atomfilms.com), a Seattle-based site that won this year for the top film site. “We launched a year ago and wondered how people would react to watching new movies on the Web. For this kind of industry award to come so soon is amazing.”

Winners of the fourth annual Webbys, given by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, were determined by 270 judges, including digerati and glitterati such as David Bowie (music sites), Matt Groening (humor sites), Robin Williams (gaming sites) and Francis Ford Coppola (film sites). A total of 27 categories were voted on by judges. An estimated 130,000 Netizens also visited the Webby Awards site (https://www.webbyawards.com) to cast their votes for the People’s Voice award in each category.

AtomFilms, which features short films and animations, beat out such competitors as the behemoth Internet Movie Database film information site (https://www.imdb.com), which had won a Webby each of the last three years. IMDb still won the People’s Voice award for film for the fourth year in a row. (AtomFilms won the People’s Voice for broadband.)

To Roesch, the fact that AtomFilms was selected by the academy over IMDb, considered a Web institution, was significant.

“[Our] winning the Webby is an important event in the evolution of the Internet as an entertainment medium,” Roesch said. “Historically, the Web has been about providing information to audiences. This is the first time a site offering a direct entertainment experience won in this category.”

Robert Siegel, editor in chief of the Onion (https://www.theonion.com), a Madison, Wis.-based satirical newspaper site, which won a Webby for best humor site for the second year in a row, noted that winning doesn’t “revolutionize” things, but, like any kind of exposure, helps boost traffic to some degree.

“I’m not sure if there was a before-and-after kind of effect,” Siegel said. “The big breakthrough for us was going online four years ago, when readership took an insane leap. Something like this is an affirmation, a pat on the back for a job well done.”

Coincidentally, the same night of the Webby Awards, the Onion also picked up an award for best entertainment site of the year at the third annual Interactive Achievement Awards, given by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel.

According to Siegel, the real benefit of winning Internet awards is that they add to the site’s legitimacy.

“The first time, we won a Webby in the ‘weird’ category; then we were upgraded to ‘humor’ and now, with the AIS, to ‘entertainment,’ ” Siegel said. “It’s nice that we’re not just regarded as ‘weird’ anymore. ‘Entertainment’ sounds better than ‘kings of weird.’ ”

Salon (https://www.salon.com), which won three previous Webbys in the print/’zine category, lost this year to literary erotica site Nerve (https://www.nerve.com). While Salon’s managing editor Scott Rosenberg said the online magazine got a morale boost from the cumulative wins, he took a more cynical view of the awards.

“The Webbys are a fun chance for people in the industry to put on a party,” Rosenberg said. “I don’t think they have a vast significance beyond that. The Webbys started when the Web was not a mature medium, and it’s still not a mature medium.”

But, he added, “we’re very grateful to have won them.”

Meanwhile, there are three more days to get up-to-the-minute Cannes goods on the Web. If you’re in for fun, check out the official Cannes Film Festival site (https://www.festival-cannes.org), available in French and English, where you can read daily news and watch live video of the red-carpet ceremony and press conference for each film. For the best stargazing, you can get your fill (with daily news, gossip, photos, live Webcam shots and video recaps from student filmmakers on the scene) at E! Online (https://www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Cannes2000/).

And if you didn’t catch Thursday’s live Webcast of Victoria’s Secret Cannes 2000 Fashion Show, you can still view it at https://www.victoriassecret.com.

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Michele Botwin can be reached at [email protected]