Any Weblog or podcast in one of theBOBs' nine languges (English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Persian and Arabic) can participate in the Deutsche Welle's 2005 theBOBs -- The Best of the Blogs.
THE CATEGORIES
The Deutsche Welle is organizing an international Weblog award. The competition is aimed at supporting the free flow of information on the Internet and will be presented as:
The BOBs - Best Of The Blogs Awards
Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards 2005
Prizes will be awarded in 13 categories. Weblogs will be honored in the following categories:
BEST WEBLOG: This is the absolute Weblog champion! Everything about this site should be perfect: the subject, design and presentation.
BEST MULTIMEDIA BLOG: Though the winner in this category will still be well-written, the focus is on the exceptional use of photos, audio, video in an Weblog. This is the place for mobile blogging, vloggs and the classic photoblogs.
BEST PODCASTING SITE: Podcasting hasn't changed radio -- it reinvented it by letting people choose what they want to listen and where they want to hear it. This category is dedicated to the world's best podcasters.
SPECIAL AWARD
FROM REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS: This category is for Weblogs that take a strong stance for freedom of information all over the world. This award is being presented in conjunction with the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders.
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG: These honors go to the best works of blog journalism. Weblogs in this broad category need not be written by professional journalists but should make use of the journalistic attributes of analysis and commentary on contemporary issues (politics, culture, business, sports) and other hot-button topics. A Best Journalistic Weblog award will be given out in each competition language:
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / ARABIC
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / CHINESE
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / ENGLISH
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / FRENCH
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / GERMAN
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / PERSIAN
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / PORTUGUESE
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / RUSSIAN
BEST JOURNALISTIC BLOG / SPANISH.
REQUIREMENTS
Bloggers from all over the world are eligible to participate in the 2005 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards, as long as they are written in Arabic, Chinese, German, English, French, Russian, Persian, Portuguese or Spanish. The main goal of the competition is to promote journalistic Weblogs, but all kinds of bloggers are encouraged to participate.
Anyone can suggest a blog site
It doesn't matter if you're a user, a blogger or a member of the jury, everyone is entitled to submit candidates in each of the award categories. You're allowed and encouraged to suggest as many blogs and podcasts as you'd like. However, Weblogs and podcasts created by employees of Deutsche Welle or members of the jury are disqualified from participation in the competition.
Site suggestions can be submitted using our online form between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30, 2005. All fields must be filled out in order for a site to be considered in the competition. If your blog has been submitted and you do not want to participate, please contact us.
What do we consider a Weblog?
In the context of this competition, a blog is a Web site that is updated regularly by its creator. Generally, entries should be in chronological order, with the newest entry at the top.
Additionally, the Weblog or podcast should provide its users with the possibility of adding their own feedback to site or even posting their own submissions. Ideally, blog entries will also include considerable hyperlinks.
Commercial blogs or those that are password protected are not eligible for participation. In other words: They must be made freely available over the World Wide Web. Invalid URLs will not be published on the list of suggested sites and will also be excluded from the competition.
No special subject requirements
Participation in The BOBs - Best Of The Blogs Awards is not contingent on the selection of any specific subject or issue. But international entries of Weblogs that deal with political themes and report or comment on current affairs will find special consideration in the "Best Journalistic Blog" category in all of the competition's nine official languages.
Blogs that deal with the published media or other media themes are also eligible for entry in the "Best Journalistic Blog" category.
Discriminatory content is strictly forbidden
Weblogs that contain or link to any form of insulting, racist, sexist or in any other way discriminatory or obscene content will be immediately disqualified from participation. The also applies to Weblogs and podcasts that post or include such content after they have been entered into The BOBs competition.
The 2005 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards is led by an international jury of independent journalists, media experts and blog experts. The jury, with 12 members in all, has the difficult decision of making nominations and deciding on Jury Award winners in each of the categories.
Lisa Stone: The originator of BlogHer, Lisa is a journalist and blogger (Legal Blog Watch, Surfette) whose work has appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, as well as other publications and Web sites.
Ammar Abdulhamid: A Syrian novelist currently living in Damascus, Ammar is coordinator of the Tharwa Project, a program that studies the concerns of religious and ethic minorities in the Middle East. He is also a member of the "Committee to Protect Bloggers."
Loic le Meur: French entrepreneur and blogger, Loic is the executive VP & Managing Director of Europe for Six Apart, the company behind TypePad and Movable Type. He blogs in French and English.
Hossein Derakhshan (aka Hoder): His award-winning Weblog, "Editor: Myself," which he started in Sept. 2001, has been among the most influential Persian language blogs. The Guardian newspaper has called Hossein a "key link from Iran's teeming world of Weblogs to the west."
Yegor Bykovsky: Yegor is the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Chto Novogo v Nauke I Tekhnike"("What’s New in Science and Technology"). Previously he worked for five years as a columnist in one of Russia's top newsmagazines, Itogi, he also headed up the Itogi’s Internet site.
Michael Anti (ZHAO JING): A freelancer and columnist for several Chinese newspapers, has been promoting the freedom of speech in the Chinese cyberspace and real society for years. His blog is one of China's rare domestic sources of true information.
André Lemos: Professor André Lemos is head of the International Center for Cyberculture Research at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. His reputation as the "Cyber Pope" extends far beyond South America.
Dr. José Luis Orihuela Colliva: Professor at the University of Navarra (Spain), vice chair of the Media Lab, focuses his research on the
impact of technological innovations over media and
communications. Speaker and blogger, he writes daily at eCuaderno.com.
Ignacio Escolar García: The Spanish journalist and blogger is editor at the news portal informativostelecinco.com and runs the blogs escolar.net and elastico.net. Ignacio won the José Porquet prize for online journalists.
Julien Pain: Responsible for the Bureau Internet and Freedom of Reporters without Borders. Julien is specialist on new technologies and their impact on freedom of speech.
Jörg Kantel: Jörg Kantel is the head of computing at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. He created his Web site, schockwellenreiter.de, in 2000 and has established himself as one of Germany's most beloved bloggers.
Konstantin Klein: Deutsche Welle's former Washington correspondent, Konstantin Klein is now working as an editor at DW-TV in Berlin. Privately, he runs several blogs.
[ Click here to visit the BOB official site. ]
