SA website developers judge global Internet competition
DotNetNuke Corporation is a California-based provider web content management services. It is also the steward of the DotNetNuke open source project, a web content management platform for constructing web sites and web applications on Microsoft.NET.
Howard Rybko, CEO, Syncrony, formed part of a panel of three judges who, together, reviewed 160 websites during the initial judging phase of the Community Choice Awards run by DotNetNuke Corporation.
Rybko scrutinised 54 web sites and, together with the input of the DotNetNuke community, shortlisted several sites across a variety of categories. These included best overall site, best creative/original site and best ecommerce site.
And the best was...
www.waterplayUSA.com was awarded first prize for the Best Overall Site.
"It was a fantastic opportunity and privilege to be a part of this international process. The standard of the submissions was very impressive and it was really tough to narrow the field to only a few sites. Essentially we were looking for web sites that demonstrated a balance between aesthetic value, functionality and ease-of-use," said Rybko.
According to Rybko, as far as global operators are concerned, it is clear that the Internet serves as a foundation resource for business development and ecommerce.
"It is true that more users have access to online resources in developed markets, but the fact remains that service providers and online communities have emerged as the frontline of business development across many sectors and industry. It is interesting to note how advanced the ecommerce aspect of business development has taken root. There are certainly lessons to be learnt here, which can be applied locally," he continued, adding that in his opinion, local companies have made significant progress in the application of skills, expertise and creative thinking when it comes to websites.
"We are definitely making headway as far as website development is concerned and the market has matured, in general, and produced a number of amazing web sites. However, there is more we need to do to try to elevate South Africa's ability to compete internationally, particularly when it comes to aspects such as security, dynamic aspects that facilitate effective interactive engagement between those behind websites and browsers."
