The purpose of this guidebook
is to help you learn about Web awards, the people and organizations
behind them, and how to earn the type of awards and recognition
that will have a significant meaning for you. In this book, I
will refer to you as the award seeker and anyone
who operates, or evaluates for, an award program as the award
giver. I will cover a broad range of topics and available
literature -- most of which are online -- that relate to Web
awards and Web publishing.
Also, you will find that I have an underlying
intent to the material presented in this book. If you learn anything
about me, you will learn I'm a strong believer in knowing the
why's of something. So I will tell you "why."
I know in this way that you can decide the type of award
seeker you wish to be and how to best prepare your Web site(s)
and yourself in order to someday achieve the highest level
of Web recognition you desire.
What this guidebook will not
attempt to do is define "Web excellence." I have my
understanding of this term and so does every other award giver
and webmaster I know. Therefore, whenever I use this term, I
will have quotation marks around it. Just consider it one of
those terms that is easily understood as a concept but
has a highly complex and interpretative meaning, similar to the
term "normal" -- whatever that is.
If this guidebook has a misnomer, it
is in this book's title and wherever I use the term "webmaster"
or "webmistress." There was a time when this term meant
an individual who managed a computer that served Web pages to
the Internet. Today, this term is used by practically everyone
who publishes a Web page. Rather than upset the world on this
issue, I will use the term "webmaster" as well as "webmistress";
but when I do, please equate it to "Web author" or
"Web publisher" -- unless, of course, you happen to
be one who actually does manage a Web server.
There is a lot of information
in this guidebook to help you learn about Web awards as well
as guide you to them in a prepared manner so you can achieve
the difficult ones. Just about anyone can "win" some
kind of a Web award and, technically speaking, call themselves
an "award-winning webmaster." This guidebook is not
about becoming an award-winning webmaster. What this guidebook
is about is helping us help ourselves to become the best
Web authors and publishers we want to become through critical
input, helpful feedback, continuous improvement, and, of course,
the motivational benefits that serious Web award programs offer
us.
This book is also about learning others'
understandings of "Web excellence" and about discovering
new and useful interpretations of "Web excellence"
to incorporate into our Web sites to improve them and, in so
doing, better satisfy our site visitors' experiences. And while
this guidebook is about these and many other things -- which
you will soon discover -- this book is mostly about growth and
evolution through Web site analyses and continuous improvement.
Finally, this book is for those who
seek "Web excellence" in a manner that will one day
be recognized by a large consensus of the Web Awards Community
as well as top award givers. And I assure you, there is no greater
thrill in Web publishing than to be one of a very select few
in the entire world who can display a consensus recognition
badge. That is the glory I and others have found and one I hope
this guidebook will help you find as well.
Above all else, keep in mind that the
real purpose of Web awards is to inspire you and
to motivate you to improve you and your Web-publishing
skills. Award seeking is an adventure that can elevate
you and your Web site(s). It is also a fun hobby, so have
fun with it!
Míc Miller
