Stars Come Out for the Webby Awards
The Webby Awards took place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York Monday night, with the star-studded event honoring people and companies who showed outstanding digital innovation this year.
Hosted by comedian Patton Oswalt, winners included social media’s Vine, crowdfunding site Kickstarter and actor George Takei. Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live fame, actress Natasha Lyonne and NBA player Jason Collins were among the presenters.
Limited to five words, some Webby recipients were creative in their acceptance. “We’re sleeping in your bed,” said room rental service, Airbnb. “We’re taking this to Mars,” was NASA’s response.
The “Godfather of the Internet,” Tim Berners-Lee, gave a speech. “Not all projects succeed like this one,” said Berners-Lee about his Internet vision coming to reality.
Berners-Lee also voiced his opposition to restricting net neutrality. “Rather uncertain moves have been made,” said Berners-Lee. “The battle must rage again.”
Elusive graffiti artist Banksy received an award for his talent, though he was not there to accept it. Lawrence Lessig received a lifetime achievement award for his role in facilitating Internet collaboration.
Twitch, which is reportedly in acquisition talks with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), won two awards in the games category. Popular mobile competitions QuizUp and Dots were also given the Webby honor.
The ceremony also bid farewell to the “selfie,” joking that the word died in 2014. The tribute featured the most egregious images, including a “funeral selfie.”