This is the last week of the Webby Awards, and I for one am glad. With five nominees in each of the 27 different categories, I’ve visited, compared and rated 135 different Web sites on everything from teen pregnancy to political advocacy to mathematics. I’ve picked my favourites, but the outcome is up to the panel of judges and whatever criteria they use when deciding how to vote.
It’s not as easy as picking the Oscars – none of the Web sites featured Tom Hanks, or had a central character die dramatically in the last ten minutes.
Spirituality
Nothing against the other religions represented in this category, but the two Zen Buddhism sites took the cake. Zen at www.do-not-zzz.com is just awesome – there’s no other way to describe this breathtaking interactive introduction to the basics of Zen Buddhism. It’s funny, the graphics are cool, and it actually made me want to learn more. Aside from the interactive section, there’s not a lot else going on at this site.
As a runner-up then, I chose BuddhaNet at www.buddhanet.com , a hub for all things Zen. It’s typically laid back, and I never got the feeling that they were recruiting people to shave their heads and hang out at airports. It’s just the facts, but with the spiritual feeling woven in.
Sports
Because three 24-hour sports networks, dozens of sports magazines and the usual newspaper sports sections are not enough, sport Web sites account for a large chunk of my surfing time. It’s also the best way to read about the sports that you are actually interested in – the mainstream news rarely devotes air-time or white space to freeskiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking, rugby, ultimate, or dozens of other sports that Canadians play.
For general news reporting and sports editorials, ESPN and CBS Sportsline Web sites at www.espn.go.com and www.cbs.sportsline.com are right on top of what’s going on in dozens of different sports. While the major headlines will always be footballs, basketball, baseball and hockey, you can dig a little deeper to find out what’s going on in your sports. I think ESPN will win and CBS will be the runner-up, but the opposite could happen.
I’d also like to give a nod to Planet Rugby at www.planetrugby.com . Most Canadian’s don’t know much about our national team, or appreciate just how good they are. The games and highlights from the games are rarely televised, and most newspapers don’t seem to care, yet it is a huge sport across the country, with clubs in towns and cities from one of the country to the next. Planet Rugby is right on top of everything that’s going on the Rugby world, including the Canadian Team. Last week, with Canada narrowly losing a bruiser to Argentina in the Pan-Am cup and Canada gearing up to play England at home, there were six different articles on the splash page that involved our national team in some way. I encourage all rugby fans to check this site out, Webby or not.
Travel
One of the most lucrative angles of the World Wide Web is the online travel business. Every tourist-friendly country has a travel page, and you can book transportation and accommodation to anywhere in the world.
If you’re going travelling, I’d recommend visiting all five Webby nominees. They are Arthur Frommers Budget Travel Online at www.frommers.com , Microsoft Travel’s www.expedia.com , the National Geographic affiliate iExplore at www.iexplore.com , I Go You Go at www.igoyougo.com , and Tom Parson’s Bestfares.com.
As someone who reads a lot of travel stories but hardly every goes anywhere, a visit to iExplore is an effective vacation-placebo and gets my nod for the Webby. I Go You Go is also kind of cool, inviting people to write about the places they’ve visited and give an honest account of what it was like. The guide books can only be so honest.
T.V.
Television and the Web are inexorably linked at this point, with one medium feeding off the other in perpetual symbiosis. Every station actively promotes it’s Web Site, sometimes with one of those annoying see-through watermark graphics at the bottom corner of the screen. Every show also has its ownWeb site, and viewers are always directed there when the closing credits roll.
The best T.V. site would have to be the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) at www.pbs.com . Although PBS is dangerously underfunded, they still manage to turn out original high quality programming for kids and adults.
The runner-up could easily be the History Channel at www.historychannel.com . There’s a lot more to this station than daily broadcasts of "Bridge Over the River Kwai" and stock footage of the Luftwaffen going down in flames.
Weird
Although all the candidates certainly met the weird criteria, there was one site I kept going back to again and again – a creepy little page called Weird New Jersey (www.weirdnj.com), a grim diary of all the weird things that have happened in the Garden State in the last 350 years. There are UFO sightings, ghosts, freak accidents, unsolved murders and disappearances, holy visions, crazy car crashes – everything but Bon Jovi.
My runner-up choice would have to be the Fortean Times (www.forteantimes.com), founded in 1973 to carry on the work of American pseudo-scientist Charles Fort. Fort was probably the first UFO researcher of the century and led investigations into all kinds of paranormal phenomena. He invented the concept of teleportation and condemned scientists worldwide for arguing according to their own beliefs and ignoring the larger possibilities. All his novels and essays are available online, as is the work of other scientists in the same vein.
