The Good Oil

By Tom S. Noda

World-class Web sites -- representing the best works of local Web designers for 2007 -- are expected to dominate this year's 10th Philippine Web Awards (PWA) celebration slated on Nov. 23, Friday, at the Teatrino Bar and Restaurant, Promenade, Greenhills Commercial Complex, in San Juan City.

Scheduled to kick off at 6:30 PM, the glitzy awards program will be followed by an after party that will begin at 8:30 PM and run until midnight.

This year's event also marks a milestone for local trade publication MediaG8way Corp. -- publisher of PC World Philippines, Computerworld Philippines, and Enterprise magazines -- as it honors the country's best Web sites for the 10th consecutive year.

A total of 69 Web sites made it to this year's PWA finals, competing in 15 different categories, namely: Arts and Portfolio; Blogs; Celebrities and Personalities; Community and Portal; Corporate; E-commerce; E-LGUs- City; E-LGUs- Provincial; E-LGUs- Municipality; Lifestyle and Leisure; News and Media; Organizations; Personal; Recreation; Schools; and SMEs (sites of small and medium enterprises across all industries).

TV personality Donita Rose will host Friday's affair along with co-anchor and fellow celebrity Gelli Mateo. Two local alternative rock bands Join the Club and Brass Monkeys are set to rock the night away with their live performances.

Judges, both foreign and local, composed of veteran Web artists, content writers and designers, have evaluated all the 69 Web site finalists. The finals round ended last Nov. 15 and the scores of each finalist are now being tabulated by the auditors of Punongbayan & Araullo accounting firm, who are the 10th PWA official auditors.

Similar to last year, awards would be given to the Best Web Site and the People's Choice (for each of the 15 categories), as well as to the Most Popular Web Site of the Year. In addition, two special awards will be given: the eLGU Hall of Fame Award and the Web Accessibility Award.

The PWA judges will choose the winners of the Best Web Site Awards, while the Peoples Choice Awards will be based on the results of this year's online and SMS voting, which is scheduled to end midnight of Nov. 22.

The special eLGU Hall of Fame Award -- a first for the PWA -- will be given to three-time consecutive winners under a particular category in the annual eLGU Search for Best Local Government Web Sites.

Meanwhile, the Web Accessibility Award is a special award for the most accessible Web site among the finalists in the eLGU Category. This award seeks to honor the local government Web site that is most friendly to persons with disabilities. It also aims to promote awareness and understanding of the importance of making all content available to all persons including those with disabilities.

To join the People's Choice Awards SMS voting, key in WEBBYS HELP and send it to 2973 for Globe and Touch Mobile and to 210 for Smart and Talk & Text. For online voting, register at www.philippinewebawards.com. Prizes await lucky voters in the weekly draws. For ticket reservations, call 812-8401 loc. 152 and look for PJ Chancico.

The 10th PWA is presented by Media G8way Corp., in partnership with the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and National Computer Center (NCC), with the support of the following gold sponsors: Globe Telecom, Yahoo! Philippines, and Dockers. Other 10th PWA supporters are: Softrigger Interactive (Official Web Developer); Clickthecity.com (Official SMS Service Provider); Pixeleyes Multimedia (Official Video Provider); Mozcom (Official Online Payment Service Provider); Bitstop Network Services (Official Web Hosting Provider); Topnotch Awards and Novelties (Official Trophy Provider); and Punongbayan & Araullo (Official Auditor).

Media partners include The Philippine Star, Computerworld Philippines, Enterprise, PC World Philippines, and FM radio stations Nu 107 and Magic 89.9.