UW-W student group could win Webby Award

Students in the University of Wisconsin Whitewater Media Arts and Game Development project have been nominated for a 2010 Webby Award.
According to Spencer Striker, faculty member in the Media Arts & Game Development program, the Webby Awards are the internet equivalent of the Academy awards.
“It’s really amazing to get this nomination,” Striker said. “We’re in a head to head battle right now to receive the People’s Voice Award, the award voted on by the public.”
Striker, and the group of forty students are nominated for the group’s GameZombie TV series, a showcase of the groups work during 2009, that featured videos and interview from every major gaming event across the country. Striker is the owner and executive producer of GameZombie Entertainment LLC, a company he started as an adjunct professor at Indiana University in Bloomington.
“We really spent a lot of time in post production after the videos were shot to try to make them look and feel like fun entertainment experiences,” Striker said.
The nomination comes at a good time, Striker said. UW-Whitewater recently invested in a $70,000 multi-media technology lab with a video conferencing system, new high definition cameras, iMacs and top grade audio equipment. In the fall, the school will launch its Media Arts and Game Development degree program, the centerpiece of that curriculum will be the GameZombie TV series.
“This program has been in development for over three years, and its my goal to make this program the top one of its kind within a public university,” Striker said. “The program itself will have other aspects that fit within the degree curriculum including some web development, web video production, social media and game development, we’re expecting it to be very popular.”
Winning a webby this year would solidify the fact that UW-Whitewater students have the talent and the capability to compete on a professional level, Striker said.
People can vote for the 2010 People’s Voice Webby Award until Thursday, April 29. For the past week, UW-Whitewater’s nomination video has been in a close race for first place with a video from Columbia University School of Journalism. An award ceremony will be held at the end of Internet Week in New York in June.
To view the UW-Whitewater nomination and to vote for it visit: www.youtube.com/webby