I’m Not Sure How I Feel About This
November 25, 2008 at 10:58 am
Damien Mulley’s blog won best blog at the Golden Spider awards last week. I think he deserves it, it’s a great blog, consistent, well written, newsy and he’s not afraid to tell it like it is.
But I’m not sure I support his decision to attend the very awards he has slagged off so much. Not only that, but he got taken as a guest of eircom’s. His commentary on the night is nauseating:
I’m very very grateful for the Award and for how I was looked after at the event. They covered the ticket too, not like I’d pay for one! The Golden Spiders staff were awesome and made sure everyone had a good time.
Slurpy mc slurp. I don’t like it.
If you have principles which I believe Mr Mulley does, then stick to them and don’t roll over to get your tummy scratched when “Big Telco” offers you a ticket for a black tie event. He talks about the web being open and that’s why he set up the Irish Web Awards, and how exclusive awards ceremonies are rather like holding the Olympics but only for rich white men.
Well in my opinion, Mulley attending the Golden Spider Awards (email law breakers that they are) is like Mandela attending a KKK Rally! How the mighty have fallen.
We’re on CSS Mania
October 14, 2008 at 11:26 am
Kanchi has been picked up by CSS Mania which is a real treat. The numbers under the screenshot are for voting. I clicked 5 and thought it was going to take me to page 5 on the inside. If you go visit, please click on the higher numbers thanks!
News just in: we’re on The Best Designs - another site celebrating beautiful web design.
Am beginning to think we should have won that one too!
Thanks to Ken for letting me know.
A Win For Us At Irish Web Awards
October 13, 2008 at 11:32 am
It’s official! The Most Accessible Website in Ireland is Kanchi, a site created by Brightspark during the summer. I’m so glad it won for a number of reasons:
- Kanchi’s mission is to change the way society thinks about disability. So it’s only fitting that their site is the Most Accessible in Ireland.
- The site was also shortlisted for Most Beautiful Website in Ireland and that in itself says something. Accessibility and beauty do not normally go hand in hand, so am particularly pleased about this.
- A site like Kanchi would not have been picked up by the other two awards. Not for profits generally don’t have the spare cash to be able to afford entry into the Golden Spiders. And they are usually too busy doing good things to have the time to email everyone who knows them to ask for a vote in the IIA awards. The Irish Web Awards was set up to honour sites that are doing everything right; it means more to me to win this award because it’s validation by peers in the industry - who can be the toughest critics of all.
- This is Brightspark’s 3rd year in a row to be nominated for awards. I really wanted to win something and not have to do the smiling and clapping when someone else walked up to pick up the prize again!
Winning this award also gives validation to Brightspark’s business process. A couple of years ago, I introduced a new approach which has been working exceedingly well. Brightspark puts together teams for projects. When I meet a client and understand their vision, their style, and their budget, I go off and put together the very best team to deliver their job.
For Kanchi, this involved Ken Stanley on coding , Ray Doyle on design, Jess Kelly on video content, and me on copywriting and project management. The most perfect talent for the job works together for the duration of the project. When the project is delivered, it moves to a less costly maintenance team for updates. For clients it means they get access to the best talent in town at an all-in price. The teams get to work on what they do best on exciting projects. And I get to work with amazing individuals without buying into one design style or coding capability.
I’d like to thank IQ Content for sponsoring this award. I have the utmost respect for the work that they do, so again it was more validation to be accepting the award from people I admire.
You can view all the winners here. Without wanting to sound too gushy, I think they are all brilliant so I don’t want to name any one over another. But go - check these sites out, admire, and be inspired!
Brightspark Site Shortlisted
September 23, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Yippidy-do-da, one of our sites has been shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards. It’s none other than the beautiful Kanchi - in the Most Beautiful Website in Ireland category. And we’re still waiting to see if it appears in the shortlist for Most Accessible Site in Ireland too.
Competition is stiff, there are some wonderful sites out there. Just goes to show how important it is to have these awards that are free to enter and unbiased in the judging process.
Irish Web Awards Nominations - this Friday
August 25, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I’ve voted. You can too.
None of the ‘pay to enter bullsh’. No black tie affair that many cash strapped start ups can’t afford to attend. And it’s not a ‘how big is your email list’ type of awards do either.
Your website will be judged without you putting your hand in your pocket. A ticket for the night is also a magnitude less than other award functions but that’s no excuse. We think that 16 year old we keep mentioning should be able to afford 30 quid, sure they’d spend that on fags in a week.
The inaugural Irish Web Awards take place on 11 October.
You must get your nominations in before this Friday 29th August. If you’re going to the Electric Picnic, make it the last thing you do before you pack up and go!
What a stunning logo
