World wide web, 2024
Tiny Awards
Dear visitor,
Welcome to Tiny Awards 2024.
Last year, we decided to launch Tiny Awards, a small prize to celebrate interesting, small, craft-y internet projects and spaces which basically make the web a more fun place to be.
We hoped it would be a small contribution to celebrating ‘people making stuff on the internet for the fun of it and the love of it and the hell of it’. We were thrilled to see that people seemed to like the idea, so we’re doing it again in 2024 - still tiny, still celebratory, and still (hopefully) helping spread the word about some of the small, personal, whimsical, weird and poetic things people are making on what is left of the web.
We will open for submissions in June. In the meantime, if you’d like to go back in time to read about the 2023 awards, check out all the nominees, and see who won (oh, ok, it was Lauren Walker’s ‘Rotating Sandwiches’), then click here.
A small change for 2024.
This year's awards will have TWO categories - the first is the principal award (sponsored by ZINE), which just like last year will reward tiny, homemade, personal webprojects; the second is for tiny, homemade multiplayer web projects (sponsored by PartyKit), designed to be experienced as a communal experience by multiple users simultaneously.
With care,
Kristoffer and Matt
Committee
FAQ
What are these awards?
Tiny Awards exist to celebrate the personal internet, what we described last year as ‘the other web, the one that is small and handmade and isn’t trying to sell you anything or monetise anything but which instead is about people using the digital tools we all have access to to make the sorts of small, personal experiences that you tend not to see ‘in feed’’.
Is there an award?
Yes, there are two! The winner of the main Tiny Award will receive $500 (sponsored by ZINE) and a handmade trophy commemorating their achievement (don’t worry, it will be quite small and you won’t need to build additional shelving to accommodate it, and it is likely to be heavy enough to use as a murder weapon should that be additional reason to covet it).
The winner of the multiplayer award will receive $300 (sponsored by PartyKit).
All nominees will receive a small cash prize to congratulate them.
What are the criteria?
To be eligible for selection, projects must meet the following criteria:
✺ Non-commercial: projects must not be intended for commercial end; projects which feature some sort of merchandise/donation mechanic are eligible, but this must be secondary to the project’s primary scope/focus.
✺ URL-based: projects must exist on their own, unique URL.
✺ No apps/downloads: projects that exist as apps and/or require a download are excluded from selection.
✺ No agencies or brands: individuals or groups of creators only.
✺ Launched between 06/23-06/24.
What sort of websites shouldn’t be entered?
✺ Is the website you’re thinking of more than a year old? Maybe don’t enter it! (we do check)
✺ Is the website you’re thinking of less whimsical and personal, and more ‘look, I built a really exciting new SaaS offering?’ Maybe don’t enter it!
✺ Is the website you’re thinking of effectively a sales tool? Maybe don’t enter it!
What’s your policy on websites that use generative AI?
Look, this is complicated. We understand that people have strong feelings about generative AI and its impact on creative work (amongst other things), and the ethics of using it at all. Equally, though, it’s true that there are a significant number of ways in which generative AI can be used to help people make and build things online which they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do - which feels like a good thing!
Basically speaking, the Tiny Awards approach to generative AI is:
✺ We don’t have a blanket ban on entries that use Gen AI.
✺ That said, if it looks like a website that’s been coded and written using an LLM and illustrated entirely with Stable Diffusion output, it’s unlikely to get shortlisted.
✺ We are trying to celebrate the human, personal internet - it’s up to you to decide whether or not a website created using machine-generated code and content really fits the bill here (clue: it doesn’t).
Is anyone making any money out of this?
Well, the winners and nominees are, a bit. We’re certainly not.
How is this website made?
mmm.page forever and always.
Anything else?
Email us at [email protected].
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