AND THE WINNER IS...

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection Wins Webby Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement

SAN FRANCISCO, CA- June 19, 2002
The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences selected The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection www.davidrumsey.com as the winner for Outstanding Technical Achievement at The 6th Annual Webby Awards.

Hailed as "the only awards for Internet sites that matter" by the Los Angeles Times, winners of the 6th Annual Webby Awards were announced at a special ceremony Tuesday evening in San Francisco. In addition to Rumsey's site, winners ranged from global giants like the BBC, which was honored in two categories for Best News and Best Radio, Google for Best Practices and The Osbournes for Best Television.

"This year's winners and nominees surely live up to the title 'world wide'," said Tiffany Shlain, founder and director of the awards. "The Webby Awards are proud to honor the Web sites that are setting the standards for the medium and bringing the world online.

" Webby Awards were handed out in 33 categories, including Film, Activism and Humor. In keeping with Webby tradition, winners were once again held to five-words-or-less acceptance speeches. In his acceptance speech, Rumsey said, "Maps are ultimate eye candy."

The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, one of the largest private map collections in the United States, numbers more than 150,000 maps and includes rare 18th-and-19th-century North and South American atlases, charts, globes, wall maps and related items. The online collection currently numbers more than 6,500 high-resolution digital images, including a series of maps published in 1814 documenting Lewis and Clark's trek across America.

"I share this honor with all who made the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection technically feasible, notably Luna Imaging, Telemorphic and the many other innovators who have helped to bring this collection to life online," Rumsey said. The site also uses GIS technology from ESRI and image compression from LizardTech.

Using Luna Imaging's Insight® software, Web viewers experience this unique collection of historical maps in a revolutionary way. Complete cataloging data accompanies every image, allowing for in-depth searches of the collection. Using Insight, multiple maps from different time periods can be viewed side-by-side. Or, the end user can create their own collection of maps by saving groups of images online that hold particular interest.

The Rumsey website also uses a new lightweight GIS Web browser from Telemorphic, which provides image analysis and visualization, along with three-dimensional views and "fly-through" experiences of selected maps from the collection. This highly visual and interactive environment allows people to view older maps in combination with modern aerial photos and satellite imagery to gain a better understanding of history and landscape changes over time.

The Webby Awards is the leading international honors for Web sites and achievement in technology and creativity. The awards are determined by the Academy, a diverse, 350-person organization whose membership includes David Bowie, Beck, Esther Dyson, Rob Glaser, Vint Cerf, and Susan Sarandon.

For a list of all this year's Webby winners, visit: http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html

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