MIT News Office may win Webby
MIT News Office may win Webby
The MIT News Office is winning a close race for its first Webby People’s Voice Award. As of Monday April 26, the News Office leads the pack in the category for best school/university website, topping Wheaton College (30 percent), The University of Puget Sound (15 percent), Bucknell University (14 percent), and Point Park University (8 percent).
The annual Webby Awards, sponsored International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, honor the best of the internet. There over 100 categories covering websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and the mobile web. In each category, two prizes are given: The Webby People’s Voice Award, whose winners are determined popular online vote; and the Webby Award, whose winners are determined by members of the Academy.
Voting this year began on April 13 and will continue until April 29. The winner will be announced on May 4.
Winners of the competition receive a small Webby Award statuette, a framed award certificate, and an Webby badge that may be placed on their website.
The judging criteria differ for each category. Websites are evaluated based on content, structure/navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall experience.
So far, over 580,000 votes have been cast since April 13. Across all categories, the top vote getters are Twitter (25 percent), Hulu (24 percent), Pandora (17 percent), Jim Carrey’s official website (17 percent), and the FAIL Blog (17 percent).
To participate in the voting, visit the People’s Voice Webby Awards website (http://webby.aol.com/).
The five websites nominated for the School/University category are:
MIT News Office — http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/
Wheaton College 150th Anniversary — http://150.wheaton.edu/
University of Puget Sound Website — http://www.pugetsound.edu/
Point Park University Generic U Campaign Web — http://www.genericu.com/
Bucknell University Virtual Tour — http://community.bucknell.edu/
— Robert McQueen