2008 Woodie Awards
Student's personal Web site reaches national attention
Tarah Groomer Ranger Reporter
Issue date: 9/29/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
A 19-year-old Amarillo College student won an internationally recognized award known as a Webby.
A Webby honors the best of the best when it comes to Web sites. There are more than 60 categories, ranging from arts to government to television sites.
Webbys are judged by a large panel of judges consisting of 500 or more people.
Members include Web experts, business figures and celebrities such as Internet inventor Vint Cerf, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groeling and musicians Beck and David Bowie.
Tyler Morgan, an engineering and computer science major, created a personal Web site all about him called www.rtm86.com. It stands for Robert Tyler Morgan born in 1986.
Morgan's Web site may look simple at first glance, but a lot of work went into it. It has an online journal, personal photography, links to other interesting sites, a place to tell him if you like his site - and a place for if you don't.
When Morgan found out he was nominated, he was puzzled. Not only was he nominated for the personal category, but the student category as well. Normally when nominated for the student category, the Web site belongs to a university. This year he went up against Columbia University.
Morgan won in the personal category and traveled to the media, advertising and entertainment capital of the world, New York City.
He arrived at Gotham Hall, where he was given an award along with former Vice President Al Gore.
Since winning the award, Morganr's Web site has had an incredible spike in visitors.
"When I was nominated in the top five, it shot up real high that day," he said. "The biggest jump was whenever I was in The New York Times and I had like five million hits in a matter of a month."
He was picked as Yahoo's Web site of the day, had a story published in the Amarillo Globe-News and gets offers from other schools for internships.
Even though he isn't a graphic design or photography major, he has offers pouring in from local businesses.
"In reality, I want to be an airline pilot, so I don't really have to go to college," Morgan said. "I've just always enjoyed computers. That's why I've chosen computer science. It's challenging."
A Webby honors the best of the best when it comes to Web sites. There are more than 60 categories, ranging from arts to government to television sites.
Webbys are judged by a large panel of judges consisting of 500 or more people.
Members include Web experts, business figures and celebrities such as Internet inventor Vint Cerf, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groeling and musicians Beck and David Bowie.
Tyler Morgan, an engineering and computer science major, created a personal Web site all about him called www.rtm86.com. It stands for Robert Tyler Morgan born in 1986.
Morgan's Web site may look simple at first glance, but a lot of work went into it. It has an online journal, personal photography, links to other interesting sites, a place to tell him if you like his site - and a place for if you don't.
When Morgan found out he was nominated, he was puzzled. Not only was he nominated for the personal category, but the student category as well. Normally when nominated for the student category, the Web site belongs to a university. This year he went up against Columbia University.
Morgan won in the personal category and traveled to the media, advertising and entertainment capital of the world, New York City.
He arrived at Gotham Hall, where he was given an award along with former Vice President Al Gore.
Since winning the award, Morganr's Web site has had an incredible spike in visitors.
"When I was nominated in the top five, it shot up real high that day," he said. "The biggest jump was whenever I was in The New York Times and I had like five million hits in a matter of a month."
He was picked as Yahoo's Web site of the day, had a story published in the Amarillo Globe-News and gets offers from other schools for internships.
Even though he isn't a graphic design or photography major, he has offers pouring in from local businesses.
"In reality, I want to be an airline pilot, so I don't really have to go to college," Morgan said. "I've just always enjoyed computers. That's why I've chosen computer science. It's challenging."