1997 was the first year of the annual Webby Award event, which was the first-ever nationally televised awards ceremony devoted to the Internet. 700 people attended the event on March 6, 1997 at Bimbo's Night Club in San Francisco, California[3] Whereas in later years the panelists were official members of International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, in 1997 the awards were chosen and given by IDG's The Web Magazine, which appointed a panel to judge the competition.[4]
The Web magazine, which was hosting the awards, was closed down by its parent company IDG shortly before the awards, and the ceremony continued thereafter under the management of Tiffany Shlain, who IDG had hired in 1996 to coordinate the awards.[4] The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences was constituted that year as the judging panel for the awards, continues to do so as of the 2007 awards.
The 1999 Webby Awards were held on March 18, 1999 at the Herbst Theater (War memorial Opera House) in San Francisco, with a post-award party at City Hall.[9]
That year, Mayor Rudy Giuliani lobbied to move the ceremony to New York City, but San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown convinced the organization to remain in San Francisco by promising city support.[citation needed] Brown gave a speech at the ceremony and Marc Maron was the master of ceremonies.[10] The event was noted for the famous incident in which a representative of Jodi.org, which had won in the arts category, called the event participants "Ugly corporate sons-of-bitches" in his acceptance speech and tossed his trophy to the audience.[11] In 1999 the Webby Awards asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to help it tabulate and ensure security for the "People's Voice" winners, chosen by online voting.[12]
The first year, there were a lot of bells and whistles. Moving into the second year, everyone as doing everything in their power to get people's attention. Then they got the point last year to simplify.
Tiffany Shlain, in an interview with Inter@ctive Week[13]
The 2000 awards were the first time that organization requested submissions.[14] Previously, nominees had been selected by an internal committee.[14] The organization gave out awards in 27 categories voted on by a 350 member judges.[15]
This year marked the first year the awards show was broadcast online, and it lasted 20 minutes.[16] The organization provided 30 awards.[16]NASA and eBay won the most honors.[16]
Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Former Vice President Al Gore in recognition of the role he played in the development of the Internet over the past three decades[18][19]
Webby Entrepreneur of the Year: Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and HDNet
Webby Person of the Year: Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of The 21st Century
Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Robert Kahn, co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols, the technology used to transmit information on today's Internet
Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Prince, for "visionary" use of the internet, and being the first major artist to release an album over the internet, Crystal Ball.
Nicolas Roope of London agency Poke London, receiving a Webby in 2007 for designing the Zopa site
Honorees at 11th Annual Webby Awards included:
Webby Lifetime Achievement: David Bowie was honored for his career which has pushed the boundaries of art and technology – from Ziggy Stardust to BowieNet, the Internet service provider he launched in 1998, to BowieArt, a Web site that connects the new visual artists with art collectors worldwide.
Webby Lifetime Achievement: eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman accepted the award on behalf of the 150 million registered eBay buyers and sellers
Webby People of the Year: YouTube Co-Founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley
Webby Artist of the Year: Beastie Boys were recognized for their 2006 concert film, "Awesome, I Fucking Shot That", which was filmed entirely by dozens of audience members using hand-held cameras provided by the group.
Two Special Achievement Awards for Acting were presented at the 1st Annual Webby Film and Video Awards:
Best Actor: "Ninja", the star of the online comedy series "Ask a Ninja"
Best Actress: Jessica Rose, star of the fictional video diary "lonelygirl15"
The 2008 Webby Awards took place on June 11, 2008 at the Citriani Restaurant event space on Wall Street in New York City.[20][21][22]
Honorees at 12th Annual Webby Awards included:
Webby for Best Drama in the Webby People’s Voice Awards of the Year: Urban Wolf.[26]
Welcome to Pine Point received two Webbys, for Documentary: Individual Episode in the Online Film & Video category and Netart in the Websites category.[27]
Watson, the computer which competed on Jeopardy!, was named Person of the Year.[28]
Webby for Best Individual Performance of the Year: Vincent Sze in Urban Wolf
In keeping with the awards themselves, winners are designated according to the website winning the award, although the winner is, technically, the web design firm that created the winning site and in the case of corporate websites, the designer's client. Web links are provided for informational purposes where the winning website or a follow-on remains available and can be found; the text used for the hyperlink is as listed on the past winner pages at https://web.archive.org/web/20081208183958/http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/winners-1997.php and so on. Many older websites, however, no longer exist or are redirected to replacements and are so noted.
