Education

Voting Starts on the Webby Awards

Webby Awards show us there is still plenty to learn on the Internet.

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Since the Internet’s early days in 1996, the Webby Awards have been honoring the best of the best online. No Internet award ceremony would be complete without a weird category; however, with more than 50 categories the Webby Awards emphasize the diversity and potential of the online world. Categories include education, science, games, news and art; while nominations can be made under Websites, Online Film/Video, Interactive Advertising/Media, Social, and Mobile/Apps.

Though ENGINEERING.com has yet to be nominated, many organizations we’ve supported are nominated this year. Under education websites, MOOC provider Coursera and educational video hub Ted-ed have been nominated. Other Education nominees include “Ready. Set. Grad Website”, BioInteractive.org, and The Second World War in 100 objects. As for the science nominations, there are The Institute for Molecular Engineering, WIRED Science, Space Center Houston, “How to put a human on Mars”, and Nautilus.

The ceremony is led and judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), a body of over 1000 judges including web experts, executives, visionaries, celebrities and former Webby winners. The IADAS includes big names such as Internet co-inventor Vint Cerf, Kevin Space, David Bowie and Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker.

Unlike other awards shows, each category has two opportunities to win, the Webby Award (picked by judges) and the Webby People’s Voice Award. Every year, the People’s Voice Award gathers millions of votes, although the 12,000+ nominees are still chosen by the IADAS.

This year’s ceremony will be hosted by Patton Oswalt. He will ensure that winners stay within the traditional 5-word acceptance speeches. Some noted speeches have included Gif creator Steve Wilhite’s “It’s pronounced ‘JIF’ not ‘GIF’,” and Trigger Street Productions’ Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti’s “The Oscars should do this.”

Voting started April 8th and will end on April 24th, 2014; while the award show will air May 20th, 2014. So get voting, and while you’re waiting for the results make sure to check out the nominees as they represent some of the best places to learn on the web.

Source Webby Awards1, Webby Awards 2, Webby Awards 3

Images courtesy of the Webby Awards.

Written by

Shawn Wasserman

For over 10 years, Shawn Wasserman has informed, inspired and engaged the engineering community through online content. As a senior writer at WTWH media, he produces branded content to help engineers streamline their operations via new tools, technologies and software. While a senior editor at Engineering.com, Shawn wrote stories about CAE, simulation, PLM, CAD, IoT, AI and more. During his time as the blog manager at Ansys, Shawn produced content featuring stories, tips, tricks and interesting use cases for CAE technologies. Shawn holds a master’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Guelph and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.