Penn Law School, FactCheck.org win Webby Awards

The people have voted, and they have decided in favor of two Penn websites.

Both Penn Law School’s website and the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck.org won People’s Voice Webby Awards on Tuesday.

The Webby Awards, which have been hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, saw over 11,000 submissions this year. Only five in each category — 7 percent — were ultimately selected to move on to the voting round.

This is the first Webby Award for Penn Law, which won in the Law category, and the sixth People’s Voice Award for FactCheck.org, which won in the Politics category.

“It’s an honor to receive the ‘People’s Voice’ award, because it’s a recognition that our readers support our mission and appreciate our work,” FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely said in an email.

FactCheck.org has also received four Webby Winner titles from the Webby Awards since its first win in 2007.

For Penn Law, “this is gratifying because the redesign and overhaul of our website was a project involving the input and contributions of a wide array of Law School staff, students, and faculty,” Associate Dean of Communications for Penn Law Steven Barnes said in an email. “They all share this accolade.”

“It’s an honor to … have the Penn Law site recognized as one of the best of the Web,” Christine Droesser, director of web services for Penn Law, added.

“We sought from the beginning to create a site that’s leading edge – that’s seamlessly integrated with social media, that allows users across the Law School to easily upload and share content, and that conveys information in a way that’s compelling and efficient to navigate,” Droesser said in an email.

The Juvenile Law Center, a nonprofit public interest law firm based in Philadelphia, received the Webby Winner for Law. Truthdig, a news website that “provides expert coverage of current affairs,” took home the Webby Winner for Politics, breaking FactCheck.org’s three-year streak.

This is the Juvenile Law Center’s first nomination and win, while it will be the fifth Webby Truthdig has received.

Two other local websites — With Art Philadelphia, a website devoted to showing off Philadelphia’s artistic scene, and DoSomething.org, a Philadelphia nonprofit organization that “spearheads” national campaigns for social change — were also named Webby Winners in their categories.

The awards will be officially bestowed at a ceremony on May 21.

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