Peter Sinclair: Here come the Webbys

By PETER SINCLAIR

Houseproud webmasters round the world are buffing their sites to an even higher gloss — or at least giving them a bit of a lick and a promise.

Move over, Oscar, Tony and Emmy. Here come the Webbys.

The judges (declaration of interest: I'm one of them) have almost finished winnowing nominees to just five in each of 28 categories. That's one more than last year. And as the awards gain credibility and prestige, so do the sponsors.

Armani will host swank Nominees Parties in San Francisco and New York. And with Negroponte fluttering provocatively at its masthead ("The change from atoms to bits is irrevocable and unstoppable"), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has put its money where its mouth is — $US50,000 with a Webby Prize for Online Art.

It will be awarded annually, in association with the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, to an artist (or artists) producing a body of work whose primary focus is online and which "explores and expands the distinctive capacity of the online medium."

As well, the winner's work will be featured in "e.space", SFMOMA's new online gallery.

True art-lovers will be applauding wildly. The other sort will be flying into a red rage at this fresh incursion of technology into aesthetics.

But my patch at the Webbys is online radio, so I thought I'd give you the chance to do a bit of judging in the category yourself. Here, in no special order, are the 11 nominees — see if you can pick, as I am trying to, the five finalists:

BBC World Service: My own sentimental favourite, the dear old Beeb is hitching up her skirts and boogying. The best of British as far as design is concerned — sensible, serviceable and just a bit dull. But ah, the content.

Comedy World: Viagra jokes can carry a show only so far — the Brits do vulgarity much better. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

Dublab: Time-warp radio. "Please grab all your modern belongings and toss them to the wind ..." Musically, If that was then I'm glad it's now.

eYada.com: Lizzy Fit ... Dan and Scott ... Rush and Malloy ... Gossip and entertainment for the terminally talkative.

Fresh Air: Provokes thought and satisfies it with great book reviews, sensitive programming and interviews with serious stars like Ellen Burstyn and Mike Nichols.

Hard Radio: "The heavy metal supersite celebrating three decades of hard-rock heritage — no punk, no funk, no wimp-rock junk ..." Eardrums, don't fail me now.

House of Blues: Relaxed musos making the sort of good-natured sounds you used to hear at the Rotorua Sound-Shell back in the 50s.

Live 365: Pick a genre, from alternative to jazz, out of 30,703 radio stations.

SonicNet: Great programming, and you'll love the rock'n'roll Hall of Shame, where Leonard Nimoy offers an enigmatic treatment of Proud Mary and Robert Downey jun demonstrates he can do drugs far better than ballads.

VH1: online at-work radio at its best.

Youth Radio: not nearly so constipated as the name might suggest.

You be the judge ...

* e-mail: petersinclair@email.com


Links


The Oscars

The Tony Awards

The Emmy Awards

The Webby Awards

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences

BBC World Service

Comedy World

Dublab

eYada

FreshAir

Hard Radio

House Of Blues

Live 365

SonicNet

VH1

Youth Radio