Mumbai, Sept 29: And the Oscar for the best internet site goes to an Indian site for the first time...Well, may be we are closer to that now. Webby Awards, considered to be the Oscars in the internet world, is constituted by none other than the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The organisation has announced that it is ready to accept Indian entries for the fourth annual Webby Awards to be held in March 2000.Surely, this is an opportunity for all those creative geniuses in this country to be honoured in the birth place of World the Wide Web (WWW). The earlier deadline of September 16 has been replaced with the new deadline of October 6, to allow Indian participation. The entry fee is Rs 2,650 per website, per category. Personal websites or non-profit organisation sites can register at Rs 1,350.
A look at some of the names who have been competing -- amazon.com, superbad.com, setindia.com, Showman of the millennium RK.com, contests2win.com, indiatimes.com and many more.
In India,Mumbai-based LA Promotions is organising promotional campaigns through its website, lappromotions@vsnl.com. The Reserve Bank of India's move to permit remittance in Indian rupees for the event has come at the right juncture for the participants, feels LA Promotions managing director Rohinton Maloo.
In March 1999, more than 3,000 online luminaries turned for the Webby Awards to claim lovely slinky-like statuettes in 22 categories; from arts to the weird. More than 115,000 internet fans registered to vote for their favourite sites in the `Peoples Choice' awards.
The winners are chosen by members of the academy, 220 media experts and authorities. Some of the judges are David Bowie, director Francis Coppola, actress Gillian Anderson and cyber guru Esther Dyson. The judgment criteria include content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity and overall experience.
The academy has added two new categories for the Webby 2000 - personal websites and activism. Other categories arearts, community, commerce, education, fashion, film, finance, games, health, humour, living, music, news and politics, sports and technical achievement.
But after winning the trophy, if you are planning to make a long speech ala Oscar style, you could be in for a surprise. The academy has made it clear that entrants should not have a long acceptance speech but only few famous utterance on the lines of `I am king of the World Wide Web".
The winners will also can enjoy the VIP pre-party, which was last year sponsored by big names like Hewlett-Packard, Intel and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.