Lankan website recognised

by Webby Awards

COLOMBO: The Webby Awards, the leading international award honouring excellence on the Internet, announced the nominees and honours for the 11th Annual Webby Awards yesterday. www.milinda.org has been selected as an Official Honoree in the two categories of personal websites and political websites.

“The Webby Awards honours the outstanding work that is setting the standards for the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webbey Awards. www.milinda.org’s official honoree selection is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators.”

milinda.org is the only non-US website to have been designated as an Official Honoree in the political website category. Other Honorees in this category included CNN’s website for America Votes 2006, the website for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and PBB’s Online News Hour-Vote 2006.

In addition, in the Personal Website category, milinda.org was the only politician’s website which was selected as an Official Honoree, the others being mostly websites by graphic artists.

www.milinda.org is a collaborative effort of three Sri Lankan institutions, the Milinda Moragoda Institution for People’s Empowerment (MMIPE), the web-hosting company, Four Corners, and the advertising agency, Red Lime. The website is maintained in Sinhala, Tamil and English and has different features in each language.

The Webby Award panel of judges evaluates websites in several different categories based on six criteria; content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall experience. It selects five nominees for website category.

Out of these nominees, one winner in each category will be selected in their awards ceremony held annually in June in the United States. Additionally, a few entries in each category that are not chosen as winners or nominees, but are notable in their achievement, are recognised as Official Honorees by the Academy.