5-Word Webby Speech Stirs Challenge

5-Word Webby Speech Stirs Challenge

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5-Word Webby Speech Stirs Challenge

Unlike the garrulous Oscars, winners at the prestigious Webby Awards are confined to a five-word acceptance speech, and New Zealand contender, SciTechDaily.com, is running a poll to garner suggestions for the most popular way of acknowledging being judged the best Science Web site in the world.

"If we win the publicly voted People's Voice Award or the Academy's own Award, we want to be ready with something memorable," laughs SciTechDaily.com's Managing Editor Vicki Hyde.

SciTechDaily.com has been running a poll for possible phrases, and site visitors have taken to the quirky challenge.

"We're getting lots of suggestions, most of them concentrating on highlighting this as another example of Kiwi creativity and technology taking on the world's best," says Hyde.

The leading contender is "One giant leap for Kiwikind", though Hyde admits she prefers "One small step for Kiwis". Another popular suggestion is "Don't dream it, be it", a subtle reference to another major success by a New Zealander; the line is out of Richard O'Brien's cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".

The Kiwi effort needs another 7% in votes to overtake NASA and, with a steady 1% gain in votes every day and seven days to go before public voting finishes, it's going to be a nail-biting week.

"We need everyone in the country to go vote - NASA has such huge visitor numbers, it's going to take a concerted effort to beat them, but we've done astonishingly well getting this far."

Even if the People's Voice Award does end up in NASA's hands, Hyde's site has a second chance, with the main award judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Both awards will be officially announced on June 18 at the Sixth Annual Webby Awards.

Contact: Vicki Hyde vicki@spis.co.nz Tel: (03) 384-5137

See http://scitechdaily.com/press.htm for press resources.

See the speech poll and other material at http://SciTechDaily.com/kiwivote

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