New York - The winners of this year's Webby Awards were announced on Tuesday, with special achievement honors going to TV host Stephen Colbert, film director Michel Gondry and musical artist will.i.am. Colbert was named the Webby Person of the Year for the innovative ways he uses the Internet to interact with fans of his show, while Gondry was recognized in part for inspiring user-generated content with his new film, "Be Kind Rewind," and will.i.am for the songs and Internet videos he produced for Barack Obama.

New York - The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced nominees in over 100 categories for the 12th Annual Webby Awards, which recognize the best and most important sites on the Web.

New York - Producers of The Webby Awards, the eleven-years-running event that recognizes the best websites in dozens of categories, announced on Monday plans to host its first industry conference, WebbyConnect, in Laguna Beach, Calif. on Oct. 3-5. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences said the three-day event will allow attendees to interact with more than 30 Webby Award winners, Academy members and other Internet innovators. Speakers at the inaugural event will include Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf; Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington; MySpace co-founder Josh Berman; Twitter co-founder Biz Stone; BoingBoing co-editor David Pescovitz; and AKQA Global Creative Director Rei Inamoto.

New York - The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the winners of the 11th annual Webby Awards, which included lifetime achievement awards bestowed on David Bowie and eBay founder Meg Whitman, and People of the Year awards for YouTube co-founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley.