Stars, Not Geeks, For Webbys
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 22:14
Stewie_GriffinThe Webby Awards will throw a fancy party June 8 in New York, where you can dress up, meet entertainment stars, and maybe even collect an award. But few real webheads will be there. The honorees

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don't include ubergeeks like Vint Cerf, Dave Reed or Dave Farber. Nor are the key policy people - Susan Crawford, Tim Wu, David Isenberg, Larry Lessig - likely invited. Instead, they feature Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, comedians Jimmy Fallon, Sarah Silverman, and Lisa Kudrow, and as many entertainers as they can attract. The result: it should be livelier than any of the geeky events we usually attend.

Popular culture will be the spirit of the future net if the Webbies are predictive. The "broadband" award nominees included MTV, BBC, CNN, and BBC.  ABSOLUT Vodka,  Adidas, Samsung, Sony, and Victoria's Secret are nominees. So are Disney, The Onion, Gardasil and Lonely Planet. But who can complain when the Beatles Revolution is a Nike commercial soundtrack.

The "International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences" has a large staff that does little more than run the annual awards, financed by entry fees that begin at $150 and go higher, rich sponsorships, and an award event that even the winners have to pay to attend. That may well skew the entries, but ED David-Michel Davies tells us that anyone who wants to enter but cannot afford the fee should write him and they will find a way to help.