I haven’t picked my dress yet for the walk on the red carpet, but I’m really excited to be part of this great initiative officially launched today by Stewart Foss, the founder of eduStyle – Stewart who also presents today the first webinar of “Website Redesign Boot Camp” about top trends in higher ed redesigns.
So, what are those eduStyle Higher-ed Web Awards all about? Here’s the answer straight from the source:
These awards celebrate the best work in college and university websites of 2007. Thirty-five categories recognize the most innovative and exciting developments in key areas of higher education web development.
Top-level prizes include best overall website, best redesign and most innovative. There are also awards in areas such as information architecture and video; awards for sub-sites (e.g. a faculty website), special projects and writing. Awards on blogging in higher-ed will be presented in partnership with CollegeWebEditor.com.
I don’t know if there will be a red carpet, but the award ceremony will take place on July 22, 2008 at eduWeb in Atlantic City, NJ.
What I really like about these awards is that there are widely open (you don’t need to pay to get your chance) and have a strong community component. As Stewart explains in the FAQ about the Awards, “Anyone can nominate any site for an award. You don’t need to be associated with the site you are nominating.”
You will be able to nominate your favorite websites for different categories starting March 5, 2008.
The voting for the People’s Choice will start on May 1st and close on June 1st.
For every category (categories will be announced later in the process), there will be a winner chosen by the judges and a winner selected by the community.
Obviously, I’ll keep you updated about the eduStyle Higher Ed Web Awards throughout the process. I hope many of you will submit websites (and blogs), so we can have a representative pool of what’s done in higher education.
