WEB DESTINATIONS
This week, I'm offering a tour of some of the Web sites honored as winners of the third annual Global Information Infrastructure Awards in April. Full details of the GIIA program and links to the sites of all winners are at www.gii.com.
WWW.DIACENTER.ORG
The winner in the arts & entertainment category, New York's Dia Center for the Arts features major artworks created specifically for the World Wide Web. Like most Internet art, it tends to the quirky. One interesting feature: A RealAudio reading of a modern translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound by the performance group Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
WWW.ONCOLINK.UPENN.EDU
It isn't pretty and it isn't fun, but the winner in health, the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center's OncoLink, offers a staggering amount of information for health-care professionals and laypeople on just about every form of cancer. It has plain-English descriptions of how cancers are categorized--and the appropriate treatment options. The site also offers links to pages maintained by patients who want to share their experiences.
WWW.INDYGOV.ORG
In Indianapolis, you can apply for a building permit or pay parking tickets online. Or you can find out the zoning status of any piece of property in Marion County simply by looking at block-level maps in your browser. This extensive use of the Web to deliver services to citizens took the prize in the government category.
WWW.GETTINGREAL.COM
Kids have a natural affinity for the Web, and the Getting Real! site from Kidsites 3000 used it to create an online community of teenagers and reel in the children's award. The colorful and lively pages allow kids to help each other cope with life and, particularly, manage the tough transition between high school and college. I found especially appealing a group of memos from high school seniors describing what they went through in applying to and choosing colleges.
WWW.SCHWAB.COM
Sites offering financial information are a dime a dozen on the Web, but the richness and organization of Charles Schwab & Co.'s pages helped the site win the commerce prize. The site offers a broad menu of analysis and data, both from Schwab itself and through links to other sites (including Business Week Online). One complaint: The frequent disclaimer screens, apparently required by Schwab's compliance department, proved annoying.
BY STEPHEN H. WILDSTROM
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