Providence’s duffyshanleyinteractive is
one of only 50 firms across the country
vying in cyberspace for the title
“Masters of the Web.”
The battle started when the new media division of Duffy & Shanley
entered a Web-based competition in which participants had one day to
design a site for the STARBRIGHT Foundation for sick children – the
first of what promises to be an annual event sponsored by Masters of the
Web, LLC of Boston. The contest’s overriding goal was to involve the
influential new media community in charity and promote excellence in Web
design, according to Caryn S. Saitz, executive director for the not-for-
profit organization and a Web site consultant.
The 24-hour competition, which took place on line between 8 p.m. on
Nov. 6 and 8 p.m. on Nov. 7 (and was reported to have left dsi’s
Richmond Street offices cluttered with grease-stained pizza boxes)
required participants to design a site for the charity headed by
filmmaker Steven Spielberg and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. The
contest pushed designers’ creative limits by imposing a tight deadline
and withholding the site criteria until the event night.
All entries now can be seen at ww.webmasters98.com. (dsi’s entry is at
www.webmasters98.com/gallery/duffyshanleyinteractive.)
Kira Greene, dsi director, said the division she helped found last
summer was honored to be counted among the country’s top Web designers.
“It feels very gratifying to be recognized and it helps propel us in the
direction we are growing – fast” she said.
Greene credited the Boston Ad Club for the nomination stemming from
dsi’s work for prominent client Software AG Americas (SAGA) of Reston,
Va. dsi’s redesign of the SAGA Web site (www.sagafyi.com) “received much
praise for its intelligent interface design and its embracing of the
SAGA brand and message,” Greene said.
Of the 50 interactive media companies invited to participate in the
masters division, 30 completed the assignment, Saitz said. In all, 175
sites were submitted, representing the work of between 750 and 1,000
people, she said.
“It feels very gratifying to be recognized and it helps propel us in the direction we are growing – fast.”Kira Greenedsi director
Ten entries from the masters division and 10 from the open division
will be chosen as finalists next month. Their creators will be asked to
defend their work on line before a panel of about 50 judges, including
graduate students from the Babson Technology Venture Network and
executives from companies sponsoring the event. A winner from each
division will be announced in February at International Data Group’s
Demo99 Conference in Indian Wells, Calif., where senior executives from
some 750 technology companies are expected to attend.
The STARBRIGHT Foundation (www.STARBRIGHT.com) will adopt one of the
sites or elements of several as its own, Saitz said. Proceeds from
suggested entry fees ($25 for students, $50 for the open division and
$250 for the masters division) will go to STARBRIGHT, as well as
Boston’s Computer Museum, she said.
