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What distinguishes the Webbys from the other proliferating ceremonies where tearful expressions of gratitude to mothers, agents and directors are obligatory is that acceptance speeches are limited to five words. "I hated acceptance speeches," says Schlain. "The Internet is all about speed and time is such a commodity." This has led to many gnomic and eliptical speeches. "Technical innovation means class war," said the Webstalkers when they won this year. "They said I could only..." said Mike Loew of the online humour magazine, Onion, as he accepted. Tiffany Schlain is nothing if not a child of the Bay Area. Born in Mill Valley in Marin County across the Golden Gate bridge at the time when everyone from Van Morrison to Rambling Jack Elliot was hanging out in the area, she is also the child of surgeon and writer Leonard Schlain and psychologist Carole Lewis. Her sister is chairwoman of ShoppingtheWorld.com, her brother chief executive officer of MedicinePlanet.com and her husband, Ken Goldberg, is an engineering professor at Berkeley who doubles as a digital artist. Family dinners must be exhausting. "As a kid, I was fascinated that flicking a switch activated light," she said of her first memory of technology. As a teenager she went to the then Soviet Union as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Programme before studying film at Berkeley and working as an independent film-maker. She still makes films, she says, and has made 27 short ones in all. Frederico Fellini is her god and every year she throws a Fellini cocktail party in his honour in her Winnebago at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Just as the late George C Scott and Woody Allen hated and shunned the Oscars, so some of the internet achievers see no point in awards either. "Ugly capitalist sons of bitches," was what Jodi.org came up with as their five-worder last year when they won the arts award. The director of the Academy, Maya Draisin, said that another nominee was "too humble" to want an award. But those who say "beware of geeks bearing awards" seem to be a minority. Schlain thinks that most people do want to be stars: "Even in tribal cultures, there is a very primal need for attention and approval." Religion and Government will be the two new categories for next year. Schlain foresaw potential problems with judging - "what happens if you have a Catholic, a Jew and an atheist?"- but was curious as to who might enter. It still seems unlikely that the Pope would be joining the likes of Sandra Bernhard, Bill Gates and Tina Brown who attended this year's ceremony last May at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco. Schlain is very keen that entries should become more international. Anyone who thinks he has a chance is asked to contact Webbyawards.com. There were entries from 27 countries this year. Schlain hopes that this will increase and is looking for more judges from other countries: "The Oscars model is that they have a foreign category which is very wrong. I would rather it was infiltrated in every category." Just like winning an Oscar, winning a Webby can change careers. "We see our role as shining our light on new success," said Schlain. "It's a new version of the American dream." This year's personal Web site winner was Cockybastard.com. Schlain said she was lecturing in Austin when "this gorgeous man" walked up to her and said "I'm going to win a Webby". She told him that it was a cocky thing to say but win he did. "He sent me an email last week and said his life had totally changed. Lots of businesses get put on the map if they win. There's such noise out there and a Webby can elevate you because there is no filter right now." New York has been trying to lure the Webbys across to the east coast but Schlain, whose offices are in South Park in the SoMa (south of Market) area of the city - also the home of Wired and countless other dot.com enterprises - is committed at present to San Francisco. There have, of course, been clashes between the new and old cultures of the city with fears expressed that the old alternative culture is being driven out by the property prices prompted by the dot.com boom. "I'm a big believer that change is good. I think that people who try to pretend that this world is not changing are not foolish but naive. Heraclitus. said 'the only thing permanent in the world is change'. I love that expression. That being said, I'm a native and I've watched this city go through many evolutions." Heraclitus is only one of many distinguished sources quoted by Schlain. Einstein, Goethe and HG Wells are all referred to reverentially in Webby literature and publicity. Next year's Big Thing for the Webbys? She reckons the services category. "I haven't been to a grocery store in a year - I use web.van. That has changed the way I live. I have not left the house for anything. I get all my books through Amazon, I get all my music through CD.now and my movies through Cosmo. "Because I have saved that amount of time, I exist differently and I think those kind of services make people understand on a very palpable, tangible level how it's changing their life. I think this year is going to be the year that the 'awe with the money' part of the industry gives way to the practical ways. The consumers and the internet are going to be woven together." In her introduction to this year's Webby awards, Schlain paid tribute to HG Wells' The Time Machine, which she said was "like the Internet today..., bravely twisted assumptions about space, time, chance, order and chaos. Out of chaos, the Webbys attempt order." Space, time, chance, order and chaos. Now there's a challenge for church and state. — By special arrangement with The Guradian |
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