Favourite Website Awards——theFWA, 業(yè)界真正稱得上無(wú)人不知無(wú)人不曉的幾個(gè)站點(diǎn)之一, 集合了網(wǎng)頁(yè)設(shè)計(jì)界最高水準(zhǔn)的展示平臺(tái)。全球的網(wǎng)頁(yè)設(shè)計(jì)師每天都要在FWA上觀摩作品與尋找靈感, 代理商與制作公司也以獲得FWA的各類(lèi)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)為榮。互動(dòng)中國(guó)這次采訪了FWA的創(chuàng)始人Rob Ford, 他將代表FWA為大家解密這家行業(yè)評(píng)獎(jiǎng)風(fēng)向標(biāo)的創(chuàng)立、歷史、機(jī)制、以及未來(lái)。

采訪、編輯: 數(shù)英網(wǎng) Newsroom
 (原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容, 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明來(lái)自數(shù)英網(wǎng))

本次采訪受訪者為FWA創(chuàng)始人Rob Ford先生，他將代表FWA回答互動(dòng)中國(guó)的提問(wèn)

(數(shù)英網(wǎng)/Rob Ford=FWA)

關(guān)于FWA:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): FWA團(tuán)隊(duì)目前有多少人手和部門(mén)? 這些部門(mén)都分別負(fù)責(zé)什么職能?

FWA: 我們擁有一個(gè)85人的評(píng)審團(tuán)隊(duì)，其中51人負(fù)責(zé)審查SOTD（Site of The Day，下同），34人負(fù)責(zé)審查MOTD（Mobile of The Day，下同）。我自己負(fù)責(zé)一般的日常運(yùn)營(yíng)與項(xiàng)目維護(hù)，當(dāng)需要做設(shè)計(jì)以及網(wǎng)站建設(shè)的時(shí)候我們會(huì)去找Group94，我們還有一些支持人員，比如財(cái)務(wù)、法務(wù)、商業(yè)顧問(wèn)等。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 你們的辦公室在哪兒? 還是說(shuō)你們目前都是SOHO? 如果是遠(yuǎn)程辦公的話，你們?cè)趺唇鉀Q溝通與合作方面的問(wèn)題的?

FWA: 即使現(xiàn)在FWA已經(jīng)成長(zhǎng)為一個(gè)國(guó)際化的品牌，我想我們還是不需要一間大辦公室，事實(shí)上對(duì)于這樣一個(gè)個(gè)人項(xiàng)目（指FWA）來(lái)說(shuō)降低成本到最小化是至關(guān)重要的，F(xiàn)WA團(tuán)隊(duì)一般靠郵件相互聯(lián)系，我個(gè)人住在劍橋。

關(guān)于評(píng)審:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 業(yè)界一直想知道的就是FWA所謂“健全的評(píng)審機(jī)制”到底是什么，我們已經(jīng)知道你們的一些評(píng)分角度，以及一個(gè)公共評(píng)審環(huán)節(jié)，但是你能給我們揭露一下更多的細(xì)節(jié)么?

FWA: 在過(guò)去的11年里FWA曾經(jīng)引進(jìn)，后來(lái)又放棄了打分制規(guī)則來(lái)選拔SOTD與MOTD，現(xiàn)在我們采用的是大評(píng)委團(tuán)制度，每個(gè)評(píng)委在每個(gè)評(píng)分組成上只能對(duì)作品打“Yes”和“No”，一件作品如果認(rèn)可度在70%以上，那么就有資格獲獎(jiǎng)。

公共評(píng)審環(huán)節(jié)又是另外一回事了，之前經(jīng)常有讀者來(lái)信說(shuō)我們?cè)u(píng)出的獲獎(jiǎng)網(wǎng)站他們并不認(rèn)可，所以我們?cè)O(shè)置了這樣一個(gè)環(huán)節(jié)來(lái)讓大家親自參與。每當(dāng)一個(gè)作品被提交到FWA，它就會(huì)出現(xiàn)在“最新提交作品”欄目，訪問(wèn)網(wǎng)站的人可以在這里對(duì)作品投票（一樣只有“Yes”和“No”），同樣的，超過(guò)70%認(rèn)可率的作品會(huì)被放到“公共評(píng)審名單”里——要注意的是這不是一個(gè)FWA官方獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，它僅說(shuō)明該作品的公眾反響度如何。——因?yàn)榘l(fā)動(dòng)群眾刷票是在是太容易了。

基本上只有SOTD等才是經(jīng)過(guò)FWA專家評(píng)審的官方獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，而“公共評(píng)審名單”則只顯示作品在更大的圈子里的好評(píng)度而已。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 接下來(lái)我們想了解一下評(píng)委方面。FWA的評(píng)委是從哪里選擇的? 你們有一支固定的評(píng)委團(tuán)隊(duì)么? FWA選擇評(píng)委的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)又是什么?

FWA: 51個(gè)評(píng)委負(fù)責(zé)審查SOTD，34人負(fù)責(zé)審查移動(dòng)類(lèi)作品。評(píng)委們遍布世界各地，而且名單一直在變動(dòng)，但是我們每天都會(huì)收到很多人的報(bào)名。我會(huì)確保評(píng)委名單中有相當(dāng)數(shù)量的年輕人——他們對(duì)這項(xiàng)事業(yè)更有熱情和動(dòng)力，對(duì)這一行業(yè)的發(fā)展趨勢(shì)也更有洞察力。同樣的，我們的評(píng)委團(tuán)隊(duì)中也擁有很多行業(yè)高層人士，用一個(gè)詞形容的話，就是“兼收并蓄”。

我們選擇評(píng)委的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)只有一個(gè)——必須獲得至少一次FWA獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，團(tuán)隊(duì)或個(gè)人皆可。我一般會(huì)把評(píng)委招募信息發(fā)送到twitter上，感興趣的人可以去fo。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 不同分類(lèi)的作品是由不同評(píng)委團(tuán)隊(duì)審核的么? 一般一次評(píng)審流程需要多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間?

FWA: SOTD和MOTD是分開(kāi)的，當(dāng)然有一些評(píng)委會(huì)同時(shí)參加兩邊的評(píng)審。流程長(zhǎng)度視乎具體情況而定，一般會(huì)需要幾天時(shí)間，但如果作品得到的分?jǐn)?shù)咬得太緊的話有時(shí)也會(huì)需要幾周的時(shí)間——有時(shí)候比分真的非常、非常接近，我不得不自己去做決定選出哪一件作品。

關(guān)于產(chǎn)品:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 關(guān)于FWA TV，我們知道所有在FWA獲過(guò)獎(jiǎng)的團(tuán)隊(duì)每周都有一小時(shí)時(shí)間在這個(gè)平臺(tái)展示自己，不過(guò)你們對(duì)FWA TV的定位是什么? FWA TV未來(lái)會(huì)發(fā)展成什么樣? 為什么你們不去為它做一個(gè)移動(dòng)app，而是鼓勵(lì)用戶直接上瀏覽器觀看?

FWA: FWAweb TV是我們的一個(gè)新項(xiàng)目，很多代理商都在上面直播了有趣的內(nèi)容。不過(guò)現(xiàn)在我們開(kāi)始對(duì)內(nèi)容進(jìn)行審核與選擇，并且期望能做出一個(gè)內(nèi)容更實(shí)用的迭代版本。我很理解觀眾們既希望看到有趣的內(nèi)容，又希望內(nèi)容很實(shí)用。我們的底線是這樣一個(gè)平臺(tái)必須能吸引很多人的參與并有機(jī)的成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)。

我們基于以下兩點(diǎn)理由沒(méi)有做FWA TV的APP: 第一是我們沒(méi)有足夠的預(yù)算去讓這個(gè)APP覆蓋所有的平臺(tái)，第二是我們希望一個(gè)mobile版的網(wǎng)站（FWA）能統(tǒng)籌所有的移動(dòng)設(shè)備。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 最近你們接受了移動(dòng)類(lèi)作品的參賽，但是為什么選擇這個(gè)時(shí)間點(diǎn)創(chuàng)建這樣一個(gè)分類(lèi)? 要知道離開(kāi)只能移動(dòng)平臺(tái)開(kāi)發(fā)的大潮已經(jīng)過(guò)去一年多了（從ipad1發(fā)售開(kāi)始算起），你們是如何考慮的? FWA對(duì)移動(dòng)類(lèi)作品的審查機(jī)制與web類(lèi)有什么不同么?

FWA: 我們從兩年前（2010年九月一日）就在m.thefwa.com開(kāi)始做移動(dòng)類(lèi)項(xiàng)目獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)了，移動(dòng)設(shè)備開(kāi)發(fā)的大潮給我們帶來(lái)了大量的參賽作品。至于審查機(jī)制和SOTD沒(méi)有什么差別，除了評(píng)審團(tuán)隊(duì)不同之外——難點(diǎn)在于我們必須確保擁有使用全部類(lèi)型移動(dòng)設(shè)備/平臺(tái)的評(píng)委庫(kù)，幸好我們做到了。

關(guān)于未來(lái):

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 你對(duì)移動(dòng)時(shí)代的來(lái)臨有什么看法呢? 現(xiàn)在看來(lái)每個(gè)人都圍著智能手機(jī)與平板電腦打轉(zhuǎn)——更重要的問(wèn)題是，作為行業(yè)標(biāo)桿的FWA，你們認(rèn)為移動(dòng)狂潮之后的大熱點(diǎn)是什么? 為什么這么認(rèn)為?

FWA: 人們不希望干什么事情都必須坐在電腦桌前而已。我自己其實(shí)對(duì)小屏幕無(wú)甚好感，但是大的趨勢(shì)是平板將取代PC，也許有一天一整代人將會(huì)根本對(duì)臺(tái)式PC毫無(wú)概念。

智能移動(dòng)行業(yè)其實(shí)還是個(gè)嬰兒，很多人才擁有自己的第一部智能手機(jī)，因此我想現(xiàn)在人們的狂熱大約和20世紀(jì)90年代初人們剛接觸到互聯(lián)網(wǎng)并因此而狂熱是一樣的原因。我認(rèn)為移動(dòng)app行業(yè)如今的確有點(diǎn)過(guò)熱了，當(dāng)你意識(shí)到你在買(mǎi)下智能手機(jī)的頭兩個(gè)月下了超過(guò)三位數(shù)的APP結(jié)果之后只用到其中10個(gè)時(shí)候，你就明白我的意思了。我想這一行最終的出路是——要么你做出橫跨全平臺(tái)的APP版本，要么你干脆做一個(gè)在任何設(shè)備上都能瀏覽的網(wǎng)頁(yè)端，除此之外都是死路一條。

我對(duì)社交媒體的未來(lái)也充滿好奇，人們現(xiàn)在同樣對(duì)之趨之若鶩。不過(guò)Facebook真有它的fans認(rèn)為的那么給力么? 起碼我不信。內(nèi)容始終為王。品牌所投放的平臺(tái)本身如果吸引了用戶過(guò)多的注意力（比如FB），總有一天后者會(huì)覆蓋掉前者。然后就是品牌商的集體逃離，并且反省之后重新規(guī)劃自己的創(chuàng)意、自己的網(wǎng)站、自己的目標(biāo)，而非一股腦的把一切都扔到facebook頁(yè)面上去。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 能告訴我們一些FWA自己的“未來(lái)”計(jì)劃么? 在未來(lái)的一段時(shí)間內(nèi)你們將會(huì)為我們帶來(lái)什么好玩的新東西?

FWA: 新一代FWA TV，以及一本關(guān)于移動(dòng)作品的study book——The App and Mobile Case Study Book。年末我們也將會(huì)開(kāi)始FWA Site of the Year 2011和People’s Choice Award 2011的評(píng)選，我也一直和其他品牌探討聯(lián)合進(jìn)行創(chuàng)意合作的方法，近期將會(huì)有一個(gè)新的project出現(xiàn)，總之敬請(qǐng)期待。

關(guān)于廣告:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): FWA對(duì)提交作品是收費(fèi)的（不止一個(gè)環(huán)節(jié)），但是你們最近也賣(mài)起了滾動(dòng)Banner這種“傳統(tǒng)業(yè)務(wù)”，這是前所未有的舉動(dòng)，能告訴我們?yōu)槭裁催@么做么?

FWA: FWA從創(chuàng)立開(kāi)始的六年里其實(shí)分文未掙，都是靠我個(gè)人的繼續(xù)在維持運(yùn)營(yíng)。在FWA免費(fèi)的時(shí)期我只能靠自己一個(gè)人來(lái)審查所有的作品——每天50到200個(gè)，基本上占用了我眼睛掙著的所有時(shí)間，實(shí)在是力不從心。因此我通過(guò)向作品收費(fèi)的方式把作品提交數(shù)量控制在了一個(gè)合理的數(shù)目——我也得到了足夠的資金維持FWA的運(yùn)營(yíng)和發(fā)展。同樣的，因?yàn)槭召M(fèi)，稿件的質(zhì)量也相應(yīng)提高了很多。

其實(shí)FWA早在06年就開(kāi)始做廣告了。當(dāng)代理商與品牌商意識(shí)到FWA在全球的影響時(shí)（累計(jì)超過(guò)1.4億PV），他們對(duì)投放廣告的需求很強(qiáng)大。招聘板塊也是同時(shí)開(kāi)設(shè)的。你需要選擇、張貼所有的招聘內(nèi)容，因此我必須收費(fèi)來(lái)保證服務(wù)的質(zhì)量和信譽(yù)。

關(guān)于Rob Ford與FWA

數(shù)英網(wǎng): Rob，作為FWA的創(chuàng)始人，為我們講講你的生平以及在FWA之前的職業(yè)吧。

Rob: 哇，還有個(gè)人環(huán)節(jié)。我在讀大學(xué)之前就走上社會(huì)了，事實(shí)上我從來(lái)都不喜歡墨守成規(guī)，走進(jìn)校園好好讀書(shū)。當(dāng)我從高中畢業(yè)的時(shí)候我去一家銀行面試，并工作了一段時(shí)間，然后是美國(guó)運(yùn)通，然后是汽車(chē)銷(xiāo)售。當(dāng)我回顧我自己的過(guò)去，我會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)我?guī)缀跻簧荚凇芭Σ⒖鞓?lè)的為他人工作”與“循規(guī)蹈矩”之間掙扎。于是在20幾歲的時(shí)候，我選擇了辭職休息——去干一些體力活，包括在夏天為別人除草。這一段狂野的日子徹底打開(kāi)了我的心扉，讓我看到了一個(gè)全新的世界。

在90年代中期的時(shí)候我開(kāi)始越來(lái)越深入的接觸網(wǎng)絡(luò)——其實(shí)是為了下載免費(fèi)游戲。然后我開(kāi)始想擁有一個(gè)個(gè)人網(wǎng)站，于是又去學(xué)了HTML，然后是Flash 3，我成立了一家叫Treecity的小公司為別人做一些小的flash和網(wǎng)頁(yè)設(shè)計(jì)。 當(dāng)我的公司獲得了UK Web Award 時(shí)，我開(kāi)始意識(shí)到一個(gè)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)能帶給人們多大的快樂(lè)。我開(kāi)始參與一些獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)的評(píng)審工作，期間我看到大部分頒獎(jiǎng)機(jī)構(gòu)在不斷宣稱自己多權(quán)威的同時(shí)卻從不向公眾展示那些“厲害”的獲獎(jiǎng)作品，因此我想更進(jìn)一步，于是在2000年五月，F(xiàn)WA誕生了。當(dāng)年我設(shè)立FWA的初衷只是為了展示那些與flash相關(guān)的設(shè)計(jì)，當(dāng)然，現(xiàn)在完全不一樣了。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 你覺(jué)得FWA和其他同類(lèi)站點(diǎn)最大的區(qū)別是什么? 是什么特質(zhì)讓你們成為了行業(yè)標(biāo)桿?

Rob: 對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，F(xiàn)WA就是我的BBC——獨(dú)一無(wú)二，與眾不同。10年來(lái)無(wú)數(shù)人模仿FWA，10年來(lái)我?guī)缀醢衙恳惶於紦湓贔WA上，即使生病了依然——有一次我食物中毒發(fā)燒超過(guò)40度依然在更新站點(diǎn)——我想就是這樣的熱情與犧牲，并且在六年里都毫無(wú)回報(bào)的瘋狂，造就了今天的FWA。

這些年里我看過(guò)太多站點(diǎn)的起起落落，太多的站點(diǎn)抄襲FWA的創(chuàng)意乃至內(nèi)容。我只想說(shuō)，就FWA而言，所有的“創(chuàng)新”都表達(dá)了這兩個(gè)字的字面意思。

作為行業(yè)標(biāo)桿，你必須保持最高的職業(yè)道德和中立的立場(chǎng)。過(guò)去的十幾年里我結(jié)識(shí)了全球各地在頂尖代理商工作的很多朋友，但是當(dāng)他們提交作品的時(shí)候我依然會(huì)一視同仁。有時(shí)我們被指責(zé)說(shuō)收了錢(qián)于是讓垃圾作品獲獎(jiǎng)，這讓我很憤怒，事實(shí)上從FWA成立至今只有一家公司試圖來(lái)買(mǎi)我們的獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)——回答自然是想也不要想。FWA作為展示世界上最有趣和有創(chuàng)意的作品的平臺(tái)，是無(wú)價(jià)的。錢(qián)不能讓你的作品獲獎(jiǎng)，作品本身才可以。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 除了FWA之外你還有別的興趣所在么? 請(qǐng)列出三個(gè)除了FWA之外你最喜歡的站點(diǎn)。

Rob: 是的，最近幾年我都在努力尋找FWA之外的人生，我妻子一直在勸我找一些其他愛(ài)好來(lái)擺脫FWA的魔掌。我一直想成為一個(gè)DJ或者音樂(lè)制作人，也許有一天我會(huì)真的去做，問(wèn)題是現(xiàn)在40幾歲的我都能當(dāng)那些DJ的爺爺了。我喜歡園藝，至今為止我已經(jīng)親手培育了500多株盆栽和樹(shù)——這也是為什么當(dāng)年我的公司名字叫Treecity。

在把自己的十多年歲月投入FWA之后，我開(kāi)始明白因特網(wǎng)外的世界更精彩，我現(xiàn)在至少在2/3的節(jié)假日里選擇休息，長(zhǎng)期來(lái)說(shuō)我的計(jì)劃是從每日運(yùn)營(yíng)退居幕后負(fù)責(zé)FWA的創(chuàng)意和決策，為了FWA的未來(lái)，新鮮血液是必須的。

以下是三個(gè)我最?lèi)?ài)的站點(diǎn):

1. Ukbassradio 在線音樂(lè)播放網(wǎng)站，超級(jí)解乏。

2. Twitter 我已經(jīng)上癮了，關(guān)注FWA的人請(qǐng)follow @fwa

3. Thathipster 在線游戲網(wǎng)站，背后的創(chuàng)意非常強(qiáng)大。

尾聲:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 互動(dòng)中國(guó)曾經(jīng)做過(guò)兩期《歷年被FWA收錄的中國(guó)網(wǎng)站 大陸地區(qū)篇/港臺(tái)篇/國(guó)際友人篇》，在制作過(guò)程中我們發(fā)現(xiàn)FWA上的中國(guó)作品或者都出自少數(shù)幾個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)師之手，或者就是不夠商業(yè)化，你們對(duì)此有什么建議么?

FWA: FWA很歡迎也很需要來(lái)自中國(guó)的作品，希望互動(dòng)中國(guó)的這次采訪能傳達(dá)我們的聲音。FWA很希望推介中國(guó)廣告和設(shè)計(jì)界的作品給世界其他地方。如果我們有那么一個(gè)評(píng)委（當(dāng)然是拿過(guò)FWA獎(jiǎng)的）來(lái)自中國(guó)就更棒了。如果誰(shuí)有興趣歡迎到FWA主站上來(lái)聯(lián)系我。

言歸正傳，F(xiàn)WA上大部分的中國(guó)作品出自個(gè)人之手，我想這表明了在網(wǎng)絡(luò)與科技告訴普及的年代里個(gè)人比大廣告公司轉(zhuǎn)身更快。新鮮事物永遠(yuǎn)是由個(gè)人先創(chuàng)造出來(lái)，而非大企業(yè)——并不是哪家大公司發(fā)明了輪子，不是么? 當(dāng)你為自己工作的時(shí)候你可以很容易做自己想做的事情，一旦你出名——在網(wǎng)上出名很容易——你很快就會(huì)收到大公司的offer。你必須遵守公司的命令的各項(xiàng)制度，然后你的創(chuàng)意速度就會(huì)越來(lái)越緩慢。

我想在獨(dú)立工作階段，你必須自己給自己壓力——越大越好。反復(fù)做試驗(yàn)，完善你的作品然后再打破它。創(chuàng)作，然后破壞，然后再創(chuàng)作，這是逼近完美的必經(jīng)之路。

數(shù)英網(wǎng): 還有什么想和大家說(shuō)的么?

FWA: FWA歡迎來(lái)自中國(guó)的作品，我們接收以下范圍內(nèi)的任何作品投遞，即使非英文作品亦可——設(shè)計(jì)才是我們最關(guān)注的方面。我們同樣接收壁紙類(lèi)作品投稿，你可以在這里了解具體的內(nèi)容。如果你會(huì)撰寫(xiě)關(guān)于網(wǎng)頁(yè)和社區(qū)方面的文章，也歡迎投遞給我們。

以下是一些分享鏈接:

• FWA上最具創(chuàng)意的得獎(jiǎng)?wù)呒?
  http://www.thefwa.com/press/creative_displays/

• 獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)哒故镜腇WA獲獎(jiǎng)證書(shū)(其中有來(lái)自中國(guó)上海的30ml)
  http://www.thefwa.com/gallery/

• FWA關(guān)于世界100強(qiáng)品牌作品的集合:
  http://www.thefwa.com/press/top100brands/

如果你想了解更多關(guān)于FWA的一切，請(qǐng)直接聯(lián)系我，我會(huì)親自回復(fù)。以上是所有采訪內(nèi)容，感謝互動(dòng)中國(guó)的采訪。

以下為采訪原文:

ABOUT FWA:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): How many people are there in FWA team? How many departments do FWA have and what are their functions?

FWA: FWA has a team of 85 judges, 51 for site of the day and 34 for mobile. I personally handle the daily running and maintenance of the project and use the services of our design/development team at group94 when required, plus the advice and services of our business advisors, legal and accounts.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): Where do your office located, or you prefer SOHO more? If you’re working in the latter, how do you manage the problems such as incontinence of cooperation or communication?

FWA: Even though FWA is a huge and globally recognized brand, we don’t have or need large offices. In fact, it is crucial for projects created by individuals that you keep overheads to a minimum. This is why the entire project is run remotely, with everyone staying connected by email etc. Personally, I am based in Cambridge in the UK.

ABOUT THE JUDGMENT:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): People always wonder that what the “well-developed criteria” is, we already know you have several aspects to judge from, and public voting part, but can you reveal more it for us in addition?

FWA: Over the last 11 years, FWA has evolved and has moved away from a points scoring system for SOTD and MOTD winners. We now focus on having a large team of judges, who all vote either “yes” or “no” on submitted sites. Those sites which achieve the highest percentage of votes, above 70%, go on to be eligible to be winners.

Public voting is entirely different. This area of the site was introduced to give our users the chance to judge sites for themselves as they often emailed to let us know when we awarded a site they didn’t like. When sites are submitted to FWA they immediately are on view in the “Latest submissions” area of the site. This is where anyone can vote and judge them by voting “yes” or “no”. After 7 days of public voting, those sites that received at least 70% “yes” votes are then listed on the “Public shortlist”. This is not an FWA award but it does show how the public rate sites. One of the reasons the public votes will never decide the daily winners is because it’s very easy to get friends, work colleagues etc to vote for sites.

Basically, winning a SOTD is the actual FWA award and this is decided by our expert industry panel of judges. A Public Shortlist entry is more about praise from the community but not an award as such.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): We also want to have a study of the juries. Where are the juries come from? Does FWA have a regular jury team? Can you tell us your criteria of selecting juries?

FWA: The judging teams, SOTD is 51 people and MOTD is 34 people. The judges change quite often as there is a big commitment to judges submissions every day. Judges are also from all over the world. I also like to make sure we have a lot of young judges as they have more passion and enthusiasm for this medium. They are also better at knowing what the future trends are. We also have some global creative directors and high level managers as judges. Overall, a very eclectic mix.

It’s important also to have people from different countries so that we can always understand different language sites.The only criteria to becoming a judge is to have won at least 1 FWA award before. That could be for a personal site or as a member of a team that won.I usually post judging vacancies on my twitter feed @fwa. So, follow that account if you would like to know when new vacancies are coming up.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): Are the submissions from different category judged by different jury teams or all submissions handled by one team? How long will the judgment process go? Please take the SOTD (site of the day) as an example.

FWA: As said above, SOTD is one team and MOTD another. Some judges are on both teams. The judging process can be a couple of days or a few weeks if the voting is very close. Sometimes it’s so close that I have to make the final decision myself.

ABOUT NEW PRODUCTS:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): Move to next stage, we’ve acknowledged that all FWA awarded agencies have one hour a week showing something interesting, but what is the positioning of FWA TV, and what you hope it become in further days? Why do you recommend people just to use mobile browser for watching instead of making an app for it?

FWA: FWAwebTV is a new platform for FWA and in the early days of it a lot of agencies had great fun and threw parties. Now things have settled down and we are looking at launching version 2 of the platform, with a focus on more useful content. I totally understand that people what to see live shows which are sometimes entertaining but also sometimes very informative and useful. The bottom line is that this is an amazing platform and to have so many global agencies interested in taking part means that we can organically grow this project so that there is always something interesting to watch.

We haven’t made an app for 2 reasons. One reason is that we do not have a large budget and that to make an app would mean making apps for all different platforms. Therefore, it makes more sense to just have one mobile site that will work over all devices.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): Now you acquire mobile apps/websites submissions, do you think it seems a little bit late since the hurricane of mobile and apps have been blowing for more than one year (since iPad 1 launched)? What’s your consideration? And does FWA have a special review process of the new category?

FWA: We started to accept mobile entries two years ago and then, on 1 September 2010, we launched the dedicated mobile showcase site at m.thefwa.com. Here we focus purely on mobile submissions, apps etc. Anything that is for mobile and handheld devices. We are seeing this gain quite a lot of momentum lately as submissions are rising every week.

The review process is the same as for SOTD but with a different team of judges. It’s more complicated because we have to make sure we have judges with many different devices but things are going great so far.

ABOUT WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE:

數(shù)英網(wǎng)： What’s your opinion about the mobile-age? It looks like everything go with smart phone and tablets PC. And the more important question is, as renowned observer and authoritative awarding organization in this industry, what will be the hotspot right next mobile? And why?

FWA: I think the certain thing is that people want information, fun etc without having to walk and sit at a PC. This is why mobile is so successful. People like me will always have a PC as some of the large applications I use would be a bit tricky to use over smaller screens. But, for the majority, I can see tablets taking over from desktop computers and an entire generation not even knowing or using a PC.

Mobile is still like a baby and lots of people go mad for apps when they get their first smartphone, much like those of us who grew up with the internet in the 1990s went crazy for free demos and screensavers. J

The reality is though that apps are a bit of a fad really as you soon realize that out of the one hundred apps you downloaded within 2 months of having a smartphone, you only actually need less than 10 of them.

I think eventually, all mobile apps will have to be generic across all devices or they will die a death and everyone will create mobile websites which they can be sure will work across all devices.

I also wonder about the future of social media. Again, everyone jumps with excitement but in the long term, does it have as much value as Facebook lovers think? I am not convinced. Content will always be king and if brands and people focus too much on one website, like Facebook, one day something will definitely take over from it and lots of brands will be left wondering why they didn’t focus on their own ideas, their own goals and their own websites, rather than dropping everything to have a Facebook page.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): Reveal us a little bit of FWA’s further plan, what’s the fascinating you will show us next few months? And why FWA will do this?

FWA: As mentioned above, FWAwebTV version 2 is coming soon. There is also a new book on mobile coming out any day now: The App and Mobile Case Study Book (http://amzn.com/3836528800).

We are also coming up to the end of the year and will be starting to judge for FWA Site of the Year 2011 and also the People’s Choice Award 2011. This is always very exciting as we look at the 12 site of the month winners (http://www.thefwa.com/sotm) and judge them for the awards.

I am always talking to other brands about ways of working together to make creative work get more exposure so stay tuned for the next FWA project which is never far away from realization.

ABOUT ADVERTISING:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): FWA charges fee for every submission in several review sections, but today you also sell banner rotation ads, which had never been done in such years. Why does FWA make such a “traditional” business now?

FWA: I founded FWA in May 2000 and for six years I worked on the project with no funding and no income. I had to finance the project and my life at that time from my personal savings. It also got to the stage, with free submissions, that I could be getting between 50 and 200 submissions every day! This meant that I spent almost all of my waking life clicking on links! It was amazing to see the type of sites people would submit when it was free entry. It reached the stage when I couldn’t cope any more so I had to introduce the submission fee. Not only did it provide financial support for the project but it also cut down the number of submissions to a sensible level and it also meant that we only got good designs being submitted.

Advertising has been on FWA since 2006 as well. There was high demand from agencies and companies to advertise the site as they were aware of the global reach of the website. In fact thefwa.com has served over 140 million site visits. So, advertising has been on FWA for 5 years now. Same with jobs, lots of agencies wanted to advertise so we introduced the job load for them. Again, you have to charge for postings or you get swamped with adverts and some of them may not even be genuine. Charging a premium ensures that advertisers are of good and reputable quality.

In summary, FWA now has to operate as a traditional business. That’s for legal reasons as well.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): FWA also offers job vacancy advertising service for many agencies and advertisers, but you just simply put hiring information on FWA and let job seekers contact with recruiters their own. Does it work pretty well? Does FWA have any further plan for this affair?

FWA: Yes, we allow agencies to advertise directly to our audience. Being such a small team, it would not be possible to do this any other way. With larger resources we could look at setting up portfolio systems but I don’t feel that would add much to the way the job board works. We have had companies of all sizes sourcing staff from our site, including the likes of Apple and Adobe and games giants like EA. I also know that over the years acquisition scouts often source interactive agencies by looking at the winners on our site.

ABOUT ROB FORD, FOUNDER OF THE FWA:

數(shù)英網(wǎng)： Rob, as the founder of FWA, we are interested in knowing more about you personally with FWA business. What did you do before you started FWA? What is your background? How did you get started in the field of creative web design?

FWA: This is the fun part of the interview where I get to embarrass myself. J I left school will minimal qualifications. I didn’t go to university or get a degree. I never enjoyed school, I always fought against the establishment that made me have to go to school. When I look back now, I can see how I ended up starting my own business as I always struggled to be happy working for a company and following the rules. When I left school I worked for a bank and made good progress. When I was interviewed for that job I had to sit a number of tests, they were logic and mathematical style tests. Apparently, I scored the highest they ever had.

From the bank I went to work for American Express and from there I went on to sell cars (Audi, VW and then Vauxhall). In my mid twenties. I had realized I was getting very bored with work and decided to just take a break and do some mundane jobs, including hay bailing during the summer (the hardest and most physical work ever!). I also enjoyed a few years of going to raves in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This totally opened my mind to a new and creative world.

It was in the mid to late 90s that I started to get more intrigued by the internet. I was always into gaming on my Vic 20 and Amiga 500 and with a Windows PC and the internet, I started to download free game demos like crazy. I then wanted to have my own website and learnt how to program HTML. This is where it all started for me and when Flash 3 came out I was hooked and then started a small web design agency called treecity. I was making small Flash sites for companies and my own agency site was nominated for a top UK web award. It was from here that I realized the amazing buzz awards gave to people. I then got involved in judging for some other internet awards and noticed how they spend way too much time showing off how great they were and not showcasing the amazing work they awarded. It was here, back in May of 2000 that I decided to set up FWA and to showcase the great sites that were going crazy in the Flash world at that time. FWA has grown from there and now showcases a huge breadth of content.

數(shù)英網(wǎng): What in your opinion that made FWA wined against all other competitors at that time and made it to be the leading one in creative web design field today?

FWA: For me, I always think of FWA like I do the BBC. The first, the originator and the project so many people have tried to copy and emulate. For ten years I worked every day on FWA and never had a single day off, not even when I was ill. I remember having food poisoning once and a temperature of 102.9 but I still crawled into my home office and updated the site. It was that level of dedication and my passion for showcasing other people’s amazing work that I always knew would be hard to rival. Working for 6 years and not getting paid shows a level of dedication or madness alone. J

Over the years I have seen so many new award sites come and go. So many of them have stolen FWA’s ideas and content and then tried to position themselves as being better than FWA. All I know is that every new addition and all growth of FWA has been organic, it has come from my own mind and not from someone else’s work.

To be one of the industry leaders, you must have the highest ethics and always maintain and neutral stance. Even though I have a huge network of people I have grown to know over the last 11+ years, from all of the top agencies all over the world, when they submit their work, it is treated the same as everyone else. We have sometimes been accused of being paid to award websites when some people have seen a site we awarded that they didn’t like. This really upsets me when I read such emails as it has never happened and will never happen. In FWA’s 11+ year history, only once has a company offered to buy an FWA award. That resulted in an instant email reply stating our revulsion at the idea and how it would absolutely never be allowed. No amount of money could buy anyone an FWA award, it’s purely down to making exciting and creative work. A simple idea, well executed is all it can take to win an FWA. You don’t need a big budget at all!

數(shù)英網(wǎng): What is your hobby besides work? And would you please list 3 of your favorite sites? (Except FWA)

FWA: I have struggled to find a hobby in recent years as I have been so devoted to FWA. My wife keeps telling me that I must find something to unwind from FWA with. I always wanted to be a DJ or music Producer so maybe one day I will get back into that. The only problem is that I am now in my 40s and I could be like an old granddad DJing at some event. J

I do enjoy gardening and this is how I started with the company name treecity as I had a passion for bonsai and trees. At one time I had over 500 small trees in 3 inch pots that I had grown from seed. Maybe I will start growing trees again.

Having devoted all of my 30s and now my early 40s to FWA, I really have realized that there is more to life than the internet and I am now taking at least 2/3 holidays per year. My long term plan is to retire from the day to day running of FWA and just maintain a creative and advisory role. It makes sense to have some younger blood pushing FWA into the future.

Oh… 3 of my favourite sites?!

1. I’m going to say: http://ukbassradio.com/ for keeping me young and for helping me through those long copy/paste sessions as I stream from their site frequently. Love my drum n bass!

2. Twitter. Totally addicted to it. Follow me @fwa

3. This year, http://www.thathipster.com/ has been one of my favourites. Great gameplay but even better ideas behind it.

THE PRELUDE:

數(shù)英網(wǎng): DamnDigital once did a work archive of Chinese wining-awards works on FWA, and while doing this we found out that most of works came from several designers and the “commercial ads” are few. What do you think about this, and do you have any suggestions to Chinese adman?

FWA: I think that we really need to get more work from China up on FWA. Maybe this interview will help to encourage individuals and agencies to submit their work. We are extremely keen to represent China’s creative industry to the world but we can only do that if people submit their work. China is one of the most exiting countries in the world and we would love to see more work from China on FWA. It would also be great to have at least one person from China on our judging team at FWA so if anyone is up for the job and, even better, has won an FWA, they can contact me via the FWA website, would love to hear from you all!

Most works on FWA from China has been created by individuals. I think this shows how individuals get technology and the internet a lot quicker than the big ad agencies. It’s always individuals that make big strides in the world. It’s always individuals that create new things. It’s never the big companies that innovate, always individuals. Think of the person who invented the wheel, not a big company. J

When you work alone it is easy to create whatever you want. Once you become well known, which can happen very quickly on the internet, you can soon get big offers from big companies. It’s then that we see the innovation start to slow down as those creatives then have to abide by the laws and rules of the big agencies. However, this is also when we see big agencies start to push out better quality work.

I guess the answer is the same… as an individual you should push the boundaries as much as possible. Be experimental in your work and personal portfolios. Make stuff work and then break the code and look for interesting results. This will get you noticed by bigger companies and all over the world if we get the chance to showcase you on FWA. It’s then that we might see better work from the bigger ad men.

To get noticed on the web, make something, break something and then mould it to perfection!

數(shù)英網(wǎng): If you and FWA have anything wishes us and to know, please feel free to write down and we will very happy to translate and press them.

FWA: I would really like to emphasise that we want to showcase more work from China on FWA. So, please consider submitting your work to us, we showcase a massive range of work these days as can be seen here:http://www.thefwa.com/about/work_we_award. We also welcome work that does not have an English version so never be afraid to submit a Chinese only site. We will focus on the design primarily.

If any of your readers would like to know more about FWA or get involved in any way, just get in touch and I’ll respond personally.We also have a great wallpaper section, which is a good chance for people to submit a wallpaper for potential showcase on our site: http://www.thefwa.com/wallpaperWe also have an article section, a great chance to write an article on the web community in China is someone wants to take this on.If I can just finish with some interesting links for your readers:

Here’s a selection of some of the most creative FWA award winners:

http://www.thefwa.com/press/creative_displays/
Here’s a selection of FWA Award Certificates displayed by our winners (one here from 30ml, Shanghai, China as well):
http://www.thefwa.com/gallery/
Here’s FWA touching 24 of the World’s top 100 brands:
http://www.thefwa.com/press/top100brands/
That’s all for now! Huge thanks for giving me a voice to your readers, I’ve really enjoyed it, thanks again!