AllAfrica's web site, allAfrica.com, has won nomination as Best News Site of 2003 by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The awards, known as the Webbys, will be presented in an online ceremony on June 5.

Often referred to as the Academy Awards of the Internet, the Webbys have become the leading honor for web sites, recognizing achievements in technology and creativity in 30 categories, including news, sports, health, finance, education and religion. The invitation-only Academy, which selects the nominees and bestows the awards, is a group of 480 people prominent in the arts, journalism and new media, who are "dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet and evolving forms of interactive media." Among the members are filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, columnist and commentator Arianna Huffington, technology analyst Esther Dyson, musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, "The Simpsons"creator Matt Groening, "Smart Mobs" author Howard Rheingold, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, and The Body Shop president Anita Roddick.

This year's nominees hail from 25 countries, among them the United States, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Canada, and Germany. AllAfrica is the only Africa site nominated. Sharing the Best News nomination with AllAfrica are the news sites of the BBC, MSNBC, Romeneskou (a commentary and discussion site hosted by the Poynter Center, a journalism professional and training institute) and Google.

Leaders of AllAfrica's editorial and technical teams: Sherrard Burton, Systems Development Manager; Akwe Amosu, Executive Editor/Producer; Rougui Diaw, Assistant Editor in charge of French services (and manager of the West Africa bureau); and Kwindla Kramer, Chief Technology Officer.

This is the second year in a row that allAfrica.com has been nominated. AllAfrica Global Media, the site's producer, is a systems technology developer and the leading source of news and information about Africa worldwide, distributing more than 800 stories daily - from a network of over 100 African news organizations and its own correspondents - to mobile and wireless devices as well as to clients such as LexisNexis, Bloomberg and Factiva (Reuters and Dow Jones) that reach tens of millions of end users.

The web site itself, which has grown by word of mouth, serves more than 10 million monthly page views and has a searchable archive that surpasses 600,000 articles and documents. Over 14,000 other web sites carry AllAfrica's constantly updating headline modules or otherwise link to the site. In addition, AllAfrica hosts SustainableAfrica.org, a site funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation to provide a digital commons for issues of development and the environment.

AllAfrica's web services technology is a pioneering, open-source platform and a set of applications that hold the promise of democratizing access to sophisticated technology tools and unlocking the power of the Internet for development. The AllAfrica technology team is working with African and international organizations and governments on a variety of initiatives, such as delivering health information through community-based centers in rural areas, supporting the growth of small and medium-sized technology industries to create jobs and build local capacity, and, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation, providing an interactive communications platform for an African network of conflict prevention groups.