Special awards

The following special awards are judged across the full list of all nominated sites.

• Accessibility Award
• Best Flash Site
  
• Best in Show Award
• Brighton Farm: The Site We Wished We'd Built Award
• Leapfrogg Searchability Award
  

HumanITy Accessibility Award

Technology is a vital part of the world we live in. But what if a person can't grasp the concept of left/right or up/down on a computer monitor. How easy would the Internet be to use? What if an individual only understands a few thousand words, would he or she understand a Government document? What if the website they use is designed in such a way that they can't even access it?

HumanITy was established in 1997 to draw attention to the social exclusion caused by the increased use of information technology - they believe that accessible information is a matter of civil rights not social policy. HumanITy does not want technology "dumbed" down - but instead made smarter and inclusive of the largest segment of the population as possible.

The Accessibility Award is based around ten criteria:

• Bobby certified/W3C guidelines [19 pts]
• Access the data, ie home page has a text link to rest of site. [13 pts]
• Purpose and resources of site clear with no more than 9 links. [13 pts]
• Description of graphics using the 'Alt' tag. [13 pts]
• Possibility to alter the colour foreground and background. [9 pts]
• Possibility to alter the size and font of the print. [9 pts]
• Simple navigation and route to home page. [9 pts]
• Arrest scroll [5 pts]
• If non adjustable at least 12 point sans serif font. [5 pts]
• No extraneous material (eye candy) [5 pts]

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Best In Show award

This year's Best in Show award was sponsored by theargus.co.uk and chosen by text voting at the Awards Ceremony. Future Platforms built a fantastic application which enabled people at the show to vote for their favourite site and watch as the votes came in live on screen.

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Brighton Farm: The site we wish we'd built

Brighton Farm is a network of local new media professionals, who meet weekly to talk about work, life and the universe. It's a unique support network for freelancers and those running their own businesses, providing a chance to keep up with current trends, ask questions about technical issues and share a drink with some very friendly people.

The Brighton Farm Award is based on votes form over 40 members, picking out a site which they think reflects a well-executed example of a great use of the internet.

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Leapfrogg Searchability Awards

Search is now the main way that people find what they're looking for online and Leapfrogg Marketing is one of many local companies who can help site owners to raise their profile in search engines. The Award is judged on the basis of several criteria:

On the page' factors

• Textual Content
• Page Tags
• Spiderability
• Usability

Off the page' factors:

• Link Popularity
• Social Reputation

Marks were weighted 40% ‘on the page', 60% ‘off the page'.

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