The NII Awards was an awards program designed to recognize excellence and innovation in use of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. The

National Information Infrastructure The National Information Infrastructure (NII) was the product of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991. It was a telecommunications policy buzzword, which was popularized during the Clinton Administration under the leadership of Vice-Presid ...

Awards, later known as the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Awards, were given from 1995 though 1999.

History

The NII Awards were created in 1995 by Access Media Inc. (based in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

), with James Hake as Chairman. By 1999 Melanie McMullen was General Manager of the GII Awards.Library of Congress Wins GII Award for Best Education Web Site
/ref> The Awards were supported by more than 70 corporate, media, government and public sponsors.
/ref> Businesses, community organizations, government agencies and individuals were all eligible to submit entries to the competition. Winners of the GII Awards include Yahoo!, The Schwab WebSite/Charles Schwab & Co., ThinkQuest and The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition. In 1996 Vice President

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

was quoted in a press release: "The winners of the NII Awards represent real-life benefits delivered through the NII and give us an encouraging look at what is possible in the future. These examples help all Americans understand the promise and potential of the information superhighway."

First annual awards (1995)

*Arts & Entertainment:

HotWired ''Hotwired'' (1994–1999) was the first commercial online magazine, launched on October 27, 1994. Although it was part of the print magazine Wired (magazine), ''Wired'', ''Hotwired'' carried original content. History Andrew Anker, Wired ...

online magazine, a vibrant, interactive magazine in cyberspace with over 200,000 readers. *Business: National Materials Exchange Network, which facilitates more than 5,000 businesses recycling waste materials. *Community: Alzheimer's' Disease Support Center (on Cleveland Free-Net), for its bulletin board system that provides a 24-hour electronic support community for the families of Alzheimer's' victims. *Education: DO-IT Program (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, Technology), for its use of the Internet to provide distance learning and mentoring to high school students with disabilities. Global SchoolNet was recognized for pioneering content-driven collaboration in schools worldwide. *Government: Utah Library Network Initiative, for its work to give rural library users access into national data bases such as the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. *Health: Information Network for Public Health Officials, for a project to allow public health officials to track outbreaks of infectious diseases. The 1995 NII Awards attracted more than 550 entries and 180 judges. Entries were submitted from February to May, and the winners were announced on July 12, 1995. The Awards were presented in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

at a dinner emceed by talk show personality

Dick Cavett Richard Alva Cavett (; born November 19, 1936) is an American television personality and former talk show host. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States from the 1960s through the 2000s. In later years, Cave ...

Second annual awards (1996)

*Arts & Entertainment: Cityspace: Network Social Space of the Future, San Francisco *Business:

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

Interactive Edition. Its easy, newspaper-like structure provides markets coverage as well as news in business, technology, marketing, the law, sports and weather. *Children: Faces of Adoption: America's Waiting Children, The National Adoption Center, Philadelphia, PA *Community:Charlotte's Web: Building Communities of Hope, Charlotte, North Carolina *Education: Winner - The Jason VII Project, Undersea Internet Site, The Jason Foundation for Education, EDS http://ic.media.mit.edu/projects/JBW/NIIPressRelease.html *Government: NFS Fastlane Project, National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. *Health: Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), for a clinical information system based on FPSI's pen tablet computer that is designed to improve information flow between doctors, clinics and field nurses who visit patients in the home. *Next Generation (Special Award): Starbright World (

Starlight Children's Foundation The Starlight Children's Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1982. Starlight's programs include providing hospital wear, games, and deliveries to hospitalized children. The programs are provided directly to children through Starlight ...

), a broadband network that links hospitals and allows seriously ill children to learn, play, and make friends on a virtual playground. *Public Access (Special Award): EPA.net - East Palo Alto Gets Plugged In, Pluggedin.org *Telecollaboration (Special Award): Electronic Cafe International, for their global network of public venues, or computerized cafes, dedicated to telecollaboration between people in cyberspace. The 1996 NII Awards attracted more than 850 entries and 200 judges. From 60 finalists, the winners' Awards were presented on December 3, 1996 in New York City at the Hilton Towers http://ic.media.mit.edu/projects/JBW/NIIPressRelease.html

Third annual awards (1997/98)

By 1997 the name was changed to Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Award, although entries were required to be in English, and based principally in the United States. *Arts & Entertainment: Dia Center for the Arts, for its unique program of large-scale web-based artists' projects. *Children: Getting Real/Kidsites3000 *Commerce: Charles Schwab & Co., for its use of online brokerage services to empower 1.2 million online customers who engage in $1 billion in transactions through the Schwab Web site every day. *Community: *Education: ThinkQuest, for pioneering a new model of collaborative teaching and learning by awarding scholarships to teams of secondary school students who build educational Web sites and tools. *Entertainment: *Government: Indianapolis *Health: *Netpreneur: *GII Next Generation: *Promise: *Public Access: The deadline for entries was originally July 7 - August 27, 1997, but was extended to November 24, 1997. From over 800 entries from 41 states, an average of 31 semi-finalists advanced in each of the eleven categories, with 68 entries announced as Finalists on March 6, 1998. Recipients of the 1997 GII Awards were expected be announced at the annual GII Awards Ceremony scheduled for December 2, or in the spring of 1998, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In fact, winners presentations were held during the Comdex show in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, on April 20, 1998 in the Grand Ballroom at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, emceeed by

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...

and

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

Fourth annual awards (1999)

*Arts & Culture: College of Computing (

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

), for The Turing Game (created by

Amy Bruckman Amy Susan Bruckman (born 1965) is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology affiliated with the School of Interactive Computing and the GVU Center. She is best known for her pioneering research in the fields of online communities and t ...

& Josh Berman), which examined the differences in male and female online communication and interaction. *Children: MaMaMedia, Inc., for helping kids become lifelong learners. *Commerce: E*Trade Group, for helping to create a revolution in the financial services industry. *Community: Join Together Online ( Boston University School of Public Health), for reducing substance abuse and gun violence. *Education: The

, for the National Digital Library Program, providing unique, high quality educational content for Internet users throughout the nation and the world. *Entertainment: As If Productions, For

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's ''World of

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'', creating a popular online counterpart of the animated television show. *Government: Office of Information Resources Management, Enterprise Information Management Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for empowering citizens through its Environfacts Warehouse and other applications. *Health: BabyCenter, for helping new and expectant parents. *Netpreneur: Garden.com, for creating the definitive Web resource for gardeners. *News & Media: Firehouse.com (Cygnus Publishing, Inc. & Cool/Writer Internet), for creating a Web Community for the Emergency Services. More than 500 total entries were received, from which 60 finalists were selected by a panel of 350 judges. The 1999 Awards were presented at the

St. Francis Hotel The Westin St. Francis, formerly known as St. Francis Hotel, is a hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets in San Francisco, adjacent to the whole western edge of Union Square, San Francisco, California, Union Square. The two 12-story south wi ...

on December 14, 1999, emceed by comedian Paula Poundstone, in conjunction with

Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related servi ...

Internet Studios Nextravaganza conference.

Demise

Although there was an announcement of a fifth set of awards for the year 2000, they were postponed after being spun out from ZD Events to Key3Media. By 2002 the

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

formerly used by the awards was purchased by

Global Insight Global Insight is an economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics fo ...

References

External links

NII Awards Program Announces Finalists in Second Annual Competition to Recognize Outstanding Uses OF Communications Technologies

Global Information Infrastructure Awards Nominations
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Web awards