UWSAG talks to Barbara Tampieri
of the BTDesign Art Gallery Website

Owner: BTDesign Art Gallery
Winner: UWSAG Top Ten! March, 2003
Winner: UWSAG Award Seekers Pick! for March, 2003 - June, 2003

1. What got you started in website design?
   
   "It all started in 1999. I wanted to show my father’s art on the Internet and have a website on my own. I started using a WYSIWYG very simple program but soon decided to learn HTML and hand code the pages myself. My first site was quite naïve and poor but visiting hundreds of sites and award programs was useful to teach me all I needed to be taught to improve my skills. In January 2000 I started my award program, BTDesign Awards, which got an initial 3.5 AS! Rating and was later upgraded to 5.0 in May 2001. In March I established BTDesign Art Gallery and added a special annual Art Award, the “Master”. At present I consider the gallery and award program the core of my website and I am willing to improve them as much as I can."
   
   
2. What do you hope to accomplish with your award program?
   
   "I enjoy giving awards because I can get in touch with some great people and visit some great sites. I have learnt 80% of my web knowledge watching the marvelous work other people did. The challenge was to take this knowledge and making it original. I served in various Award organizations and it was a very useful experience as well. I will always be grateful to inspiring awardmasters like Heidi Walsh, Tom Powell, Don Chisholm and the many more, too many to name all, who have interacted with me in the Award World."
   
   
3. What advice would you give new program owners?
   
   "First, I would advice to learn and study what other awardmaster have done and are doing for the Award World for acquiring the basic knowledge and technique of awardmastering.
   
   Then, I would recommend originality and creativity in building a new award program. Everyone has to transfer his/her unique personality in the award program he/she builds to make it special.
   
   It takes time and dedication and it surely is not an immediate process. Contrary to what newbies think, you cannot have the perfect award program at once no matter how you are inspired from the greatest AP’s because you NEED to make your own mistakes. You definitely learn from the errors you make.
   
   The last advice would be not to take the award business too seriously. I mean, you need to always have fun evaluating and awarding. It must never become a job or something alike, in my opinion, or you would feel framed."
   
   
4. What was the biggest problem you faced with your award program?
   
   "Maybe it is obvious to say, but applicants not reading the rules and criteria. I recently added a self-test one needs to complete before applying and I must say it works fine. I immediately know if the applicant has followed the rules and evaluation gets a lot simpler."
   
   
5. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
   
   "I don’t think I would act differently as awardmaster because I am what I learnt during the last three years. Every step was important and I wouldn’t change anything."
   
   
6. What plans do you have for the future?
   
   "I hope to always improve my Art Gallery and Award Program and keep them a pleasant experience to surf in."
   
   
7. What else do you like to do?
   
   "I have many interests. I really never find myself bored. I enjoy reading, watching movies, taking care of my pets, cooking, traveling and whatever interests me in that particular moment."