Today, Afilias has released the names of its panel of judges for the 2009 .INFO Awards. The Awards, officially opened last week, will reward the best professionally created .INFO Web sites from around the world.

"The international nature of our judging panel reflects the truly global appeal of the .INFO domain," said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. "We are pleased to have such a high caliber of judges representing the online and media industries."

The judging panel will be made up of six distinguished individuals from the online and media industries. The judges for this year's .INFO Awards panel will be:

• Dominik Grollman - Editor in Chief of Internet World Business (Germany)
• Peter Prestipino - Editor in Chief of Website Magazine.
• Gautam Chatur - Senior Director at Qorvis Communications.
• Michael Stephanblome - Managing Director AdJug UK.
• Katy Tafoya - Editor ConstantChatter.com.
• Philipp Grabensee - Chairman of the Afilias Board of Directors.

The judging panel will review all eligible sites submitted for consideration based on five criteria: presentation of content, functionality of the website, design, usability, and originality. Their scores will determine a shortlist of the top ten submissions, which will be published at www.info-award.info on November 2nd. From November 2-6, the public will be invited to vote on the sites selected by the judges. Public votes will be combined with the judges scores to select the top three Award winners.

Prizes for the awards are allocated as: US$7,500 for the winner, US$5,000 for second place, and US$3,000 for third place. Interested INFO Site owners are encouraged to submit their .INFO site for consideration until 11:59 p.m. ET on October 23, 2009.