PINOY WEBBY AWARDS: PHILMUSIC IS WEBSITE OF THE YEAR
Cyberspace,
December 22, 1998. Philmusic.com, a very popular website
among Pinoy music enthusiasts around the world, bagged the PLDT Website
of the Year Award in the recently concluded Pinoy Webby Awards.
Patterned after the US Webbies, the Pinoy Webby Awards honors the best Filipino-created Web sites for the year, and the individuals and teams behind them. It is the Famas of the Internet. Magoo's Pizza won the other special award: Intel's E-Commerce Award.
The selection process started in March, 1998 when readers of The Web Philippines Magazine (the award sponsor) and visitors to its web site were invited to nominate their favorite sites in 18 categories. From the more than 700 sites that were nominated, the magazine chose five finalists from each category based on the following criteria: Content, Design, Links, Overall. A group of 18 judges from the editorial team of the magazine as well as distinguished individuals from the I.T. and other industries were assembled to pick the winners.
The winners were announced during the Awards Night held last December 9, 1998 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Glorietta Center, Makati. The place was jampacked with the Who's Who in the Philippine Internet scene and web surfers worldwide with the Shockwave plug-ins were able to follow part of the proceedings via the Internet.
Philmusic.com, which won also the award in the Music category, is the brainchild of Jim Ayson, undoubtedly the most popular personality in the Philippine Internet. Jim started the website in February, 1997 after the Philmusic Mailing List, an electronic mailing discussion list that he started in July, 1996, received very favorable responses from its hundreds of subscribers.
Philmusic also hosts an Internet chat room where popular Filipino music artists (such as Kuh Ledesma, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Eraserheads, etc.) drop by occasionally for an interactive interview chat sessions in the presence of live audience. When the chat room is not being used for guest interview sessions, it is home to hundreds of Filipinos around the world conducting online chats with topics ranging from anything, music related or not.
Jim, who has been working in the IT industry for over 15 years, started his fling with the Internet in 1993 while still working at Asian Development Bank in Manila. In 1994 he did the ADB's website, probably one of the first website in the Philippines. Since then he has done more than a dozen quality websites. He now operates an independent consulting service (W3 Business Communications) doing corporate consulting, seminars and speaking engagements and writing in areas related to Internet media. He also holds an advisory position for the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN).
Jim says, "Yes, I have managed to find a way to make a decent living on the Internet."
Jim had expected Philmusic.com to win the award in the Music category but was totally surprised when it was named as the PLDT Website of the Year winner. "I will admit to a bout of mental retardation while doing the acceptance speeches (mainly out of shock, and out of not having anything prepared)..." Jim wrote in an e-mail he sent to the Philippine Cyberview Mailing List (another Internet discussion list that he created) shortly after he came home from the awards night. He finds a bit of an irony because Jim is a vocal opponent of the PLDT metering proposal scheme.
Noting that the PhilMusic.com gets an average of 32,778 hits per day and 2,402 user sessions per day, Jim went on to write: "All of this reinforces my belief that the Internet is a major force in democratizing access to the media - so the little guys can compete head on with the traditional media heavyweights in this particular medium. Power to the web-empowered!"
Music is Jim's first love and despite his busy schedule he still finds time to play with his band, the Mexicali Blues.
"I think we'll do some recording in 1999 since some of the guys in the band are recording engineers." Jim told PHNO. He comes from a musically-inclined family and one of his sisters, Kathy Llamas, hosts a live Internet radio broadcasts on the Net (www.philradio.com) playing mostly Original Pilipino Music.
Asked what keeps him busy these days after all the hoopla surrounding the Awards night, Jim said: "Doing interviews. :)".
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1998 PHILIPPINE WEBBY WINNERS
1. Arts: Montifar (www.montifar.com)
2. Business: Chief Executive Asia Online (www.wed.asiansources.com)
3. Children/Education: AGHAM (agham.asti.dost.gov.ph)
4. Computers: WorldTel Philippines (www.worldtelphil.com)
5. Culture: REALPINOY.com (www.realpinoy.com)
6. Environment: Haribon Foundation (www.haribon.org.ph)
7. Family/Personal: The Book of Reige (www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/6532)
8. Film/Celebrities: Rizal sa Dapitan (www.amanet.net/~rizal)
9. Games: Multiplayer Gamerz Philippines (hermes.iconn.com.ph/mgp)
10. Government: National Statistical Coordination Board (www.nscb.gov.ph)
11. Health/Science: Filipino Task Force on Aids (www.ftfa.org)
12. Home/Hobbies: mach11 (www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/2777)
13. Music: PhilMusic.com (www.philmusic.com)
14. Print/Literature: Philippine Daily Inquirer (www.inquirer.net)
15. Sports: Philippine Basketball Association (www.pba.com)
16. Travel: UP Mountaineers (www.upmountaineers.org.ph)
17. TV/Radio: GMA Quest (www.gmaquest.com)
18. Weird/Humor: Bert is Evil (www.fractalcow.com/bert)
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS:
1. Arts: WebCafe Philippines
(www.web-cafe.com)
2. Business: The Philippine Stock Exchange Online (www.pse.com.ph)
3. Children/Education: UP Jaycees(www.on134th.com/upmjjc)
4. Computers: Designet Philippines' Web Facility Center (www.designet.net)
5. Culture: REALPINOY.com (www.realpinoy.com)
6. Environment: BWF Online (www.bwf.org)
7. Family/Personal: Mighty Menard (members.aol.com/msolve1)
8. Film/Celebrities: Donna Cruz (donnacruz.home.ml.org)
9. Games: NBA Live 98 Shoot-out Modem League (www.portalinc.com/certeza/shootout)
10. Government: Philippine Political Update (members.tripod.com/~mbionat)
11. Health/Science: Health Alert (www.hain.org/healthalert.html)
12. Home/Hobbies: mach11 (www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/2777)
13. Music: OPM Central (www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/4477/index.htm)
14. Print/Literature: Philippine Daily Inquirer (www.inquirer.net)
15. Sports: Magnet site (members.xoom.com/MAGNET)
16. Travel: Pangasinan Web site (www2.mozcom.com/~urduja)
17. TV/Radio: Radio1 (www.web-cafe.com/radio1)
18. Weird/Humor: Bobong Pinoy (members.tripod.com/~bobongpinoy)
SPECIAL AWARDS
1. PLDT Web Site of The Year:
PhilMusic.com (www.philmusic.com)
2. INTEL E-Commerce Award: Magoo's Pizza (www.magoos.com)
The Pinoy Webby Awards homepage can be found at: http://www.webbyawards.com.ph/