The 1998 BOTI Awards: Best of the Web

Time to dress to the max because the second annual Business On The Internet Awards have been presented. Talk about excitement. The BOTI Awards have grown as rapidly as the Internet itself. CMP Media's Network Computing and InternetWeek received more than 1,200 entries for this year's awards--a jump of 500 percent from 1997. The overwhelming response proves corporate America has bought into the Internet big time as a way to do business. The general feeling this year among the judges is that the quality of the sites improved dramatically from last year. Many sites expertly targeted their audiences with specially designed content--a far cry from a year ago when the general content of most Web sites was restricte d to press releases and general financial and company information. Nearly all of the judges had a tough time choosing among the high-quality entries. The notable exception was Network Computing's online managing editor Joe Caponi, judge of the design category. He says there are still too many sites with confusing structure and poor navigation, and sites with Shockwave or Java applets on the home page are either too slow or unreadable. Most of the 33 entries in the Web-to-Legacy category, however, were of high quality, InternetWeek's Richard Karpinski reports. These companies demonstrated that the Web isn't only about new business, but about tapping into and revitalizing installed business systems. The winner in that category, Lockheed Martin Corp., is a good example. Prior to building its Web application, Lockheed Martin had trouble distributing complex technical information stored in legacy systems. The Web offers the defense contractor a low-cost way to extend that information to the desktop. Ta ke some time to learn from the experiences of our winners. We may not be as big as the Oscars or the Grammys, but you can bet each winner is just as proud to flaunt its BOTI.

To see the Winners 1998 BOTI Awards Other Features PGP Grows Up By Dan Backman