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March 12, 2001

Fire up the press office; issue a news release. The organization has won an internet award. But, as Adam Christie has discovered, for many such online accolades may well make them.


Hostages to fortune

WINNING an Oscar may increase the profitability of a movie by many millions of dollars – but winning an internet award could be the commercial kiss of death for a business.

Awards have little value if they do not reflect the evolution of the internet. By 2001, the demographics of internet use were evolving quickly and the rate was accelerating.

The all-singing all-dancing graphics that once would have been greeted with awe by software developers have become a refuge of the 'nerd. The flash Flash technology that may impress such technicians and engineers may well be the prime factor in turning a potential customer away, their business lost forever.

The quality of the award is only as good as the judging criteria or the knowledge and skills of the judges themselves.

Awards reflect the standards and judgment of those making them. For the nominees, or those eligible, it is very easy to overlook, after the first flush of flattery, the implications of being associated with an awards scheme or the individuals and organizations promoting it.

In the UK, Leeds City Council won the “functionality” category for non-profit organizations at the Yorkshire Internet Awards 2000.

The judge was Anita Pace, managing director of Kingston Internet.

Yet, click on the site in March 2001, and the type on the first page was too small for anyone other than those with perfect vision to read.

Leeds City Council is a public authority with a commitment to equal opportunities and non-discriminatory service delivery.

Yet, without adjusting the type size within browser software or peering very closely at a small screen, it was very difficult to read. 'Functional' was by no means the most appropriate adjective.

The award did nothing to enhance the credibility and prestige of either the City Council or Ms Pace in the eyes of anyone using their own critical faculties.

The UK Department of Trade and Industry has free guidance online that says that sites should primarily have four target audiences – (potential) customers, (potential) staff, (potential) investors and the community in which any organization operates.

True 'functionality' should reflect the diverse requirements that those visiting websites may have. The organization posting a site may see it primarily as a sales tool. It may however be used for research purposes by students, a quality check by someone seeking work or by a journalist wanting to try to check the spelling of a key executive’s name.

Credibility and authority start at home. The page introducing the Yorkshire Internet Awards included four paragraphs of text. There were fundamental errors in each. Some were grammatical, others involved topicality.

There is a harsh question to ask: How can such awards have any credibility when the organizers clearly do not appreciate the requirements of the medium they are seeking to promote? Or, in other words, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Awards are perceived my many as an indicator of quality, credibility and reliability – but they may be far from that.

Individual users, regardless of whether they use the web as consumers, business people or professionals, are having to learn their own 'information assessment' skills. There is so much raw information on the net that everyone must be their own editor. If the editorial skills of others are available, they may be no better developed than those of the individual end user. Award judges have frequently shown that their approach is little help to such people.

Similarly, the concept of 'usability' is not one which should be endorsed unquestioningly and unhesitatingly. The concept is 'language-specific' and has little value if the terminology, text and cultural references of a site are inappropriate for its potential users.

'Understandability' is a preferable option. A site has little use if it cannot be understood.

Internet sites are not 'once only' events. Movies are. This year’s Oscar winner cannot be next year’s loser – because it will be ineligible for the competition.

An internet site which has won an award one year should still exist 12 months later. Today’s winner stands a far higher chance of being tomorrow’s loser in this context.

Promoting an award is inviting attention. It may seem a good idea at first, but as well as strengths, the spotlight will reveal every weakness. That may earn millions. It could also bring disaster.