Public Polls commence at 2008 edition of Indibloggies, the Indian Weblog Awards
Between 25 November to 10th December, 2009 fate of 175 short-listed blogs, battling it out for prizes worth more than INR 75,000, would be decided by a public poll.
Tweet-- It is time again for the battle of the blogs at the Indibloggies (http://www.indibloggies.org), India's first and foremost blog awards, with the 2008 edition entering its last phase, the public poll. From 25 November to 10th December, 2009 the Indian blogosphere would witness the titans of blogdom clash for prizes worth more than Rs 75,000. During this phase the fate of over 150 blogs, meticulously short listed by a surefooted Jury, will be decided by the public, one with the largest votes will be declared the winner in each category.
This is the sixth year of the Indibloggies award, organised by Pune-based blogger Debashish Chakrabarty. Nominations were accepted across 17 different award categories for Indian blogs from all around the world. The 2008 event received more than 2500 nominations. Three new categories were introduced this year for Personal, Business and Microblogs.
It was a tough as well as enriching experience for the Jury, browsing through the myriad flavours of writing and handpicking the best blogging talents from the subcontinent. Pradeep Chopra, co-founder of Om Logic (http://www.omlogic.com) and part of the Jury for the first time told us that the experience was enriching. "Indibloggies is a great initiative that recognizes the Blogging Talent. Given the ever increasing proliferation and influence of Social Media in our lives today, we should have many more such initiatives." he said.
Indibloggies used Google Web Form this year for inviting open nominations of blogs across all categories. Later a 26 member Jury pain-stakingly went through all the nominations and rated each of them in various categories. Some weightage was also given to the Technorati ranking of the blog.
Awards such as the Indibloggies, apart from generating vibes of competition amongst the bloggers, serve a wider purpose of generating awareness about the Indian blogdom, celebrating the unsung bloggers. "As a blogger participant and later a non-participating juror, I found Indibloggies to be one of the fair and accurate resources in judging and discovering quality blogs in the Indian blogosphere. The truly democratic nature of voting and selection of blogs in 17 categories captures the rich variety of opinions expressed by desi netizens" says Patrix , founder of the popular filter-blog Desipundit (http://www.desipundit.com), who was also a part of the Jury this year.
Bloggers and those who read blogs already have an engagement with words. So it's a readymade pool - a really large one, and growing - of writers and readers. It is with this belief that publishers Hachette India decided to associate with Indibloggies as a Silver Sponsor. "We want fresh voices and ideas. We've looked for and found these in new places. One of these places is the desi blogosphere. In fact, our first book, My Friend Sancho is by a former Indibloggies winner, Amit Varma. We support the IndiBloggies as they continue to discover and reward the best of the Indian blogosphere.", said a spokesperson of the publishing firm.
The winner of the IndiBlog of the Year will get a scrapture trophy worth Rs. 15,000 made by another blogger, Delhi-based Arun Verma (http://www.arunverma.com).
Prizes worth Rs 75,000 have already been committed from various Bloggers and Organisations. Automattic, creators of the popular blogging platform Wordpress (http://wordpress.com) and Hachette India (http://hachetteindia.com) are the Silver sponsors. Bronze sponsors include The Problogger book (http://probloggerbook.com), Zoho (http://zoho.com) and Web-1 (http://www.web1.in). Prizes in various categories include copies of Amit Varma's recently released novel, a book on Photography, complete blog hosting packages, apart from cash-awards and other goodies. All winners will also be presented Award Certificates by the Indibloggies.
All eyes are now set on the voting process the results of which would be announced by December 15, 2009. The polls would continue until 10 December 2009, make sure you cast your vote for your favorite blog in time.
For further details, please visit the Indibloggies website at http://www.indibloggies.org. Details of award sponsors is available at http://www.indibloggies.org/sponsors-2008. The list of Jury is at http://www.indibloggies.org/jury-2008 and the award categories are listed at http://www.indibloggies.org/categories-2008.
Notes to Editor
Indibloggies is an annual blog-award website targeted at Indian Blogs and was started as a parody clique on the Bloggies.com. The site slogan says that it showcases the best of the Indian blogosphere. The website awards annually blogs written in English as well as Indicblogs (blogs written in Indian language scripts) authored by Indians and the Indian diaspora.