The Argus, Sites are simply the best - by Karen Hoy

The best web sites in Brighton and Hove were announced in the fourth annual web awards competition. This year's Brighton and Hove Web Awards attracted more interest than ever from both business and community representatives.
More than 130 nominations were made for the seven categories in this year's competition. Nominations were open during July to any web site with a connection to Brighton and Hove. The organisers of the competition, Sussex Community Internet Project (SCIP), recruited a team of 16 judges, including web designers and web users, who reviewed the nominations.
The judges came up with a shortlist of five sites in each category and those shortlisted were posted on The Argus web site last month for people to cast their votes for their favourite sites.
More than 3,000 people voted and the winners were announced at a ceremony at Sussex Arts Club, Ship Street, Brighton, last Thursday. The awards are part of the annual Brighton and Hove Virtual Festival, which is also organised by the SCIP.
This year the project celebrated its seventh virtual festival, which is an opportunity for people to find out more about what is available on the net and to get people to think about its impact on local business, education and communities.
SCIP started the festival in 1998 as the internet, email and web pages started to become prevalent. Mark Walker, learning manager of SCIP, said of the awards: "I think it's brilliant so many people joined in. It's not only a commercial project but a celebration of the success of lots of different people. "The awards were supported by The Argus, Sussex Enterprise, Wired Sussex, Midnight Communications, Virtual Brighton and Hove, Pure, Leapfrogg Marketing and O'Reilly.
Mr Walker said the awards highlighted the benefits of businesses and organisations, including charities and community groups, having web sites. He said: "It's a nice way to get people together and not just business people. "It's good to have the technical web designers and business people there but also people running charities and other organisations."

More details of the awards and the festival can be found by visiting www.virtualfestival.org.uk karen.hoy@theargus.co.uk

The Winners
Best business site - Eurogamer
Best community site - My Brighton and Hove
Humanity and accessibility award - Adactio
Best personal site - Assistant Brighton
Leapfrogg searchability award - Cactus Language
Best local arts and music site - Yellow House Art
Best site for a night out - The Insight