Throughout the month of December watch Nike and Danny Kass in a bunch of webisodes about his pursuit of the 9000.  I honestly have no clue if he is actually going to attempt this feat which is considered impossible for snowboarders. However, I think it will be quite hysterical to watch the marketing around all of this.

Watch more episodes here Nike Snowboarding

It is a bit annoying seeing all of the majors get involved in a sport they were never involved in at the start. They are capitalizing on all of the smaller companies hard work to get the sport into the mainstream.

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I think we have absolutely zero shot in hell for this to happen but we can at least try. I am thinking about all the failed Olympic bids in recent years and it doesn’t make me all warm and fuzzy inside. I think the world is sick of us. Either way the website is actually very pretty and I think it was done by the folks at Blue State Digital… ya know the Obama guys.

Finally, after a year of getting honoree (top 15% of entrants) for different sites at the USTA, 2008 USOpen.org was selected as a Webby Nominee. Last year we overhauled the site completely from top to bottom.  Tons of personalization features and we had an all time high of traffic, visits, time on site, and 200+ million pageviews. I am super excited as this is one of my first awards working at the USTA.

The first year I was at the USTA the 2007 project timeline only allowed for minor tweaks to the previous years site. Last year I was able to work with IBM’s team and work from concept to completion on creating a new design from scratch.

The Webby’s is basically the Oscar’s for the Internet. It is a 13 year old show that brings out the best and brightest of the industry. Hollywood even gets in on the mix as last year saw Stephen Colbert and Will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) make an appearance at the show. We are currently up for an award in the Event category against Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Online Series, YouTube LIVE, Sony CES 2009, and Yahoo! Upcoming. So how we are going to beat the most trafficked site on the Internet AND models in lingerie is up to God in heaven. However, being selected as even top 5 nominee is an extreme honor and I already feel like we won.  A lot of hours and hard work goes into the US Open each year by hundreds of people. All of us should be proud of this accomplishment.  I always wanted to win a slinky for an award.

Here is the official email from the Webby Awards –

Dear Ken:

It is our pleasure to inform you that The Official Website of the 2008 US Open has been nominated for The 13th Annual Webby Awards in the Events category.

As one of only five nominees in its category, your work and the team behind it are eligible for the Internet industry’s two most sought-after awards: The Webby Award and The Webby People’s Voice Award.

David-Michel Davies
Executive Director

The Webby Awards | Int’l Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences
http://www.webbyawards.com | http://www.iadas.net

So the voting has already started – Please vote for USOpen.org for the People’s Voice Awards.