Early Monday morning, the two teams, comprised of developers from ten different companies, were given information packets containing source materials about two deserving non-profit groups. Their assignment: to create a cool Web site in eight hours, live from the Web '97 show floor, amidst live music and onlookers in the show's funky Online Lounge.

The East team was assigned Spare Change, a newspaper published by and for the homeless in New England. The West team, led by Glenn Davis of Project Cool (http://www.projectcool.com), created a site for Portland, Oregon-based Artists for a Hate Free America. By the end of the day, the two charities had new Web sites worth approximately $35,000 each. And that night, Microsoft's Site Builder Network hosted a gala event, where the winners were announced and the trophy was presented to the East team.

"The real winners of this competition are the two great charities, who now have cool sites with which to communicate their message to a worldwide audience on the Web," said Kyle Shannon during his acceptance speech.

The captains selected their team members from dozens of outstanding applicants, who were judged on past work and a variety of technical and creative criteria. The East team was comprised of August de los Reyes of Community Newspaper Company (http://www.townonline.com), Mark Opala of Earthweb (http://www.earthweb.com), Nate Brochin of Rare Medium (http://www.raremedium.com) and Scott Barklow of MVBMS (http://www.mvbms.com). Contestants from the West were Ann Fullerton of Modern Solutions (http://www.mods.com), Ethan Allen of Raspberry Media (http://www.raspberrymedia.com), Josh Feldman of Prophet Communications (http://www.prophetcomm.com) and Kevin Ready of Blue Platypus (http://www.blueplatypus.com).

Members of both teams received a Web '97 conference pass from Miller Freeman worth $1,500 and approximately $5,000 in donated software and books from sponsors O'Reilly & Associates, Sybase, VXtreme, Marimba, Silicon Graphics and Random Noise.

The panel of judges selected to review the sites consisted of Web luminaries Clement Mok of Studio Archetype (http://www.studioarchetype.com), author, teacher, and designer Lynda Weinman (http://www.lynda.com), Jeet Singh, co-founder of the Art Technology Group (http://www.atg.com), Terry Swack, president of TS Design (http://www.tsdesign.com), Bob Schmitt art director of Web Review (http://webreview.com) and Farhan Memon of Yack! (http://www.yack.com) and Interactive Week.

Judge Jeet Singh quipped, "I think more people should design sites in eight hours--they might be a lot better."

Web Review, the weekly online publication for Web developers, will host the new sites temporarily at http://webreview.com/ahfa and http://webreview.com/sparechange. Complete coverage with photos from the contest can also be found on Web Review.

"Cool Site In A Day is the distilled essence of the Web design and development process," said Kirsten Alexander, senior editor of Web Review. "Attaining this level of skill is why Web professionals attend this conference, and why they read Web Review each week."

An East-West rematch is already scheduled for the next Web'97 conference, which will be held at the end of September in Washington, D.C. Kyle Shannon says he'll be back to defend the title, and developers from throughout the West are already forging strategies to bring the trophy home.