INTERNET
Awards suffering from blogjam
26-01-2007
by Emmet Ryan
Irish bloggers and their fans are causing an online pile-up as they rush to beat Friday's midnight deadline for e-mail nominations for the annual Blog Awards.
Over 6,000 nominations have already been submitted for the awards which recognise achievements in the Irish blogging community. The high level of interest was welcomed by competition organiser Damien Mulley, but he asked people to make sure they nominate blogs for the right categories.
"There are some people copying and pasting blog addresses into every category," said Mulley. "A blog about a sports team in Britain has been nominated for Best Business Blog."
Mulley has posted on the Irish Blog Awards home page asking bloggers to stop "sending people here to nominate, instruct your readers when nominating to stop f***ing up the nomination database by filling in every category."
The event's organisers believe there are up to 4,000 people blogging in Ireland compared to an estimated 1,500 last year. There are 21 categories for the 2007 awards covering areas of interest such as music, the arts and -- perhaps unsurprisingly in an election year -- politics.
"It's a new platform for people to interact with politicians," said Mulley. "You're actually seeing TDs and senators engaging with bloggers and posting comments." Several candidates have started posting blogs with some, such as Fine Gael candidate for Sligo-North Leitrim Imelda Henry, using a video blog, known as 'vlogging'.
There are eight extra categories in this year's awards compared with the inaugural competition held in 2006. New areas covered include sport and recreation, and podcasting. "Blogging and podcasting are so interlinked. A lot of podcasters moved there from blogging," said Mulley.
Once nominated a blog is automatically placed on a long list which will be released next week. A public vote will whittle this down to five nominations in each category before a panel of judges, including members of the media and bloggers, decide the overall winners.
The awards are sponsored by a diverse variety of organisations including Microsoft and Poetry Ireland. "There was great interest from sponsors. All the slots were taken before I even went public and announced the details for this year's awards," said Mulley.
An additional award, recognising the impact social networking website Bebo has had on Irish society, will be presented to the Best Irish Bebo Profile. "While still very new, Bebo in Ireland has more reach to the youth market than any radio or TV show," said Mulley. "The next web generation is learning the ropes on sites like Bebo and the point of this award is to show this generation that creating unique and entertaining content can win them recognition."
Radio DJ Rick O'Shea will MC the 2007 Irish Blog Awards which take place at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin on 3 March. Further information on the event can be found at this website.
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