Welcome back to the Webware 100!

It worked before, so we’re doing it again: Today Webware is launching its second Webware 100 Awards, honoring the people’s choice for the best Web 2.0 apps and services.

In our 2007 awards, more than half a million votes were cast to determine the most the popular Web apps. This time, with more apps available and even people using Web 2.0 apps, the contest should be even more intense.

There are 10 categories for awards in the Webware 100. Each category will have 10 winners in it. We’ve freshened the category lineup for this year:

Audio: Music, podcasts, audiobooks.
Browsing: Browsers, start pages, RSS readers, widgets, runtime engines.
Commerce and events: Retail, auctions, travel, real estate, concerts, conferences.
Communications: E-mail, chat, voice.
Productivity: App suites, to-do lists, groupware.
Publishing and photography: Blogging, content management, photo sites.
Search and Reference: Search engines, encyclopedias, mapping.
Social: Social networking, family sites, recommendations, online worlds, contests.
Utility and Security: Infrastructure providers, storage, online protection.
Video: Video storage, playback, streaming, editing, and animation.

Nominations are open

Today we are opening up the awards with the nomination phase. If there’s a site that you want people to vote on, nominate it now using this form on www.webware.com/100. Nominations will close on January 25, 2008.

You all know the routine by now. Register for the Red Bull Art of Can exhibition in Houston and complete the forms before midnight 6, April. You receive email confirmation once your registration is received, and you’ll then need to submit a Transfer Agreement Form with your artwork. Artwork will be accepted from 29 March - 6 April at The Winter Street Studios in Houston.

Ok - what’s the first step? That’s right. See you at the application form.

Notice that the deadlines for application and for the acceptance of artwork in Houston are the same (6 April) - if I were you I’d fill out that application ASAP.

The Caribbean Advertising Federation (CAF) has announced their call for entries for the 2008 ADDY Awards. The annual competition recognizes creative advertising excellence in the Caribbean in all media — print, broadcast, multi-media, online, out-of- home and public service advertising.

The ADDY Awards competition is a three-tier local, regional and national competition, conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). Local winners from the CAF will compete in the American Advertising Federation’s 4th District competition in Florida. The winners
of that competition will then be eligible for the ultimate prize — a National ADDY Award, announced in June 2008.
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Collins College is hosting an “Animation Sketch-Off” and a Q & A session with professional comic and animation artists Shannon Denton and Jay Fotos. The winner of Collins’ “Animation Sketch-Off” will receive four complimentary passes to Phoenix Cactus Comicon 2008, Arizona’s largest comic book, anime and pop culture convention 26-27 January. To RSVP for Collin’s “Animation Sketch-Off” and Q & A session, call 480-966-3000 or visit www.contactcollins.com. Participants need to be present to win.
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With a prize pot of more than £25,000 cash and vouchers and a purpose-built, stunning outdoor exhibition of the top 100 images, to be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers at the world famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, throughout the summer, this competition promises to be the world’s premier garden photography show.

Competitors are invited to enter single images or themed portfolios in the following categories, Trees, Plant Portraits, Garden Scenes, My Garden and Life in the Garden, and there’s also a Young Garden Photographer competition.

BUT HURRY! Entries close on 31 January 2008. For more details and “How to Enter”, please visit www.gpoty.org.

If you think you can predict Apple’s “Next Big Thing,” as in an “i” product (iPhone, iPod, etc.), then you might want to enter the “Next Big Thing” contest. Mac|Life, Maxon, and the Academy of Art University are co sponsoring a contest to find the best fictional product prototypes (aka “fauxtotypes”) laced with Apple design DNA. They don’t care if your ideas are visionary or absurd. They want to see how you interpret the future of Apple product design.

According to the contest site, “The best submissions will appear in Mac|Life magazine and on Maclife.com. Our grand prize winner will receive a scholarship for the Academy of Art University, and a boxed copy of Maxon Cinema 4D. Four runners-up, plus our grand prize winner, will each receive $100 gift cards for Newegg.com.”

So, if you’re an industrial designer, a 2D artist, or a 3D illustrator (or all three), decide if you want to win any of these items before you jump into the contest. Remember - Apple isn’t involved in the contest at all. Hence, the “fauxtotypes” deal. Deadline is 31 January, 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Via: Core77

Celebrating the beauty and delicacy of the marine environment, popular websites Wetpixel.com and DivePhotoGuide.com, in association with Our World Underwater, one of the largest consumer dive shows in the US, announce a final call for entries for their 3rd annual, international underwater photography and video competition. The competition has become the “Superbowl” of international underwater imagery competitions, with world-class prizes, major industry involvement, celebrity judges, and the opportunity to have your images showcased to the world as some of the best. Truly an international competition, last year winners hailed from 17 different countries.

Photographers will compete in seven still-image categories and two video categories, to win more than $50,000 in prizes including trips to some of the top dive destinations in the world, including Socorro, Wakatobi-Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Ambon-Indonesia, the Red Sea, Grand Cayman, the Solomon Islands and Vietnam. Other prizes include housings, strobes, lighting systems, signed books and other valuable items.

Deadline for submissions is 15 January 2008. The official competition website has links to entry forms, guidelines prizes and more information: UnderwaterCompetition.com.

It worked before, so they’re doing it again: Webware is launching its second Webware 100 Awards, honoring the people’s choice for the best Web 2.0 apps and services. There are 10 categories for awards in the Webware 100 including audio, browsing, video, publishing and photography, communications and more. Each category will have 10 winners in it.

The first stage in this contest is a nomination phase, so if you know of a site that you want people to vote on, nominate it now. Nominations will close on 25 January 2008.

As a warning, there’s no need to nominate a site more than once or to encourage friends to nominate an application or site that you’ve already nominated. Save those efforts for the voting phase, which will be announced after Webware has processed the nominations. Visit the site to learn more.

Every year PhotoshopCAFE’s biggest event is the design challenge. This year will be no exception (They already had to move the site to a dedicated server because of the contest traffic). Join creative minds from around the planet and battle for over $10,000 in prizes and R-E-S-P-E-C-T. As always, there is no cost to enter. This year, they are designing a cover for a Video Game. It’s a Photoshop theme and even if you don’t enter, the entries are a ton of fun to look at!

All entries must be posted no later than midnight PST 31 January 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

When American designers work with Italian materials great things happen. This competition, now in its 15th year, celebrates exceptional examples of contemporary American design featuring fabulous Italian ceramic tiles.

In order to select from a large pool of outstanding installations, an international jury looks at the overall design of the space as well as how the tiles meet their functional and technical requirements.

Deadline for this competition is 31 January 2008. Visit the site to learn more about elegible projects, rules, awards, and more.