Internet sites honored
Connecting citizens to their government, investors to their stock portfolios, and sick children to those who share their woes.
The awards, announced here Monday by ZD Comdex & Forums (a division of Ziff Davis, which publishes ZDNet), honored the best Internet sites in a variety of categories, including those devoted to health, children and the entrepreneurial spirit.
Winners were selected by a panel of judges including technology soothsayer Esther Dyson, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and venture capitalist Ann Winblad.
Recipients of the GII awards included old standbys such as Yahoo! Inc. -- which took the Netpreneur award for the pace of its innovation -- and discount online brokerage Charles Schwab & Co. -- which won the Commerce award for making investment transactions inexpensive and easy.
But they also honored lesser-known sites devoted to arts, health and volunteering. The awards are aimed at providing examples to companies and organizations looking to bolster their own Web sites.
For example, IndyGov, a site designed for residents of Indianapolis and Marion County, Ind., walked away with the Government award for developing unique ways of connecting citizens with their government.
Users of the IndyGov site can pay parking tickets online, submit contracting proposals -- which go directly to the user's database -- and e-mail their lawmakers. IndyGov also has interactive features that allow users to find parks and enter their ideas about balancing the city budget.
"The whole idea is that people can do these things from the comfort of their own home instead of having to walk down to city hall every time they want to do business," Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said.
"The Body -- an Aids and HIV Information Resource" won the Community Award for its information on the disease. Site founder Jamie Marks said The Body provides confidential information to a group not adequately addressed in the mainstream media.
"In this age of managed care, physician time is scarce, people have questions, and they need answers," Marks said. The site has a stable of doctors and therapists to help patients deal with their treatment.
The Dia Center for the Arts was another winner, taking the Arts and Entertainment award for its site, which is devoted to artists who develop online projects. The project was started in 1994, said Michael Govan, director of the New York-based center, which includes a real gallery in addition to the virtual one.
"Rather than doing what everyone was doing -- which is reproduce art that's in a gallery on the Web -- we asked artists to create projects specifically for the medium," he said.
Some of those projects have included an interactive, international survey of people's taste in art, a choreographed dance where users can get into the mind of the artist by viewing animated files, and a series of classics translated into street slang by a group of inner-city youth.
Govan said the project makes art less exclusive. "It gets art directly to the public rather than having to go through someone else," he said.
Click here for list of winners.