Nigerian Blog Awards http://nigerianblogawards.com Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:33:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Updates to the list of Nigerian bloggers http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/updates-to-the-list-of-nigerian-bloggers/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/updates-to-the-list-of-nigerian-bloggers/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:31:53 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1344 We’ve received quite a few links to new (or new to us) blogs from bloggers who’ve requested to be listed on this site and we’d like to thank everyone who’s made themselves known to us. If you know any Nigerian bloggers (or other individual who blogs about Nigeria) who fit the criteria, please share their blog address with us so we can add them to the list!

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/updates-to-the-list-of-nigerian-bloggers/feed/ 43 New for the 2012 Nigerian Blog Awards http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/new-for-the-2012-nigerian-blog-awards/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/new-for-the-2012-nigerian-blog-awards/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:36:38 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1300 With 2012 just a few days away there is a lot required to prepare for the 2012 Nigerian Blog Awards. Right now the list of bloggers on the right is being updated to reflect blogs that have been updated in the last three months (October 1, 2011 or more recently). Please note that this is a new requirement: in the past blogs updated in the last six months were listed on this site.

Following the update to the list, the blogs listed will be evaluated to ensure they qualify to be considered a blog. For the purposes of the Nigerian Blog Awards, a blog will have the following characteristics:

  • it will consist of (preferably reverse-) chronological posts
  • the majority of the posts must contain words and cannot be images or files alone
  • it will allow interaction with readers through comments, a rating system, or a voting system
  • it will be updated by no more than six individuals

The above is in addition to the requirement that blogs listed on this site must:

  • be written by a Nigerian OR have a strong focus on Nigeria
  • have been updated in the last three months
  • be open to be read by the public (no private blogs)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment. Thank you for your support!

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/new-for-the-2012-nigerian-blog-awards/feed/ 69 Feature on the Nigerian Blog Awards http://nigerianblogawards.com/featured/feature-on-the-nigerian-blog-awards/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/featured/feature-on-the-nigerian-blog-awards/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:08:51 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1282 Nwachukwu Egbunike of Global Voices was kind enough to interview me to learn a a bit more about the Nigerian Blog Awards. I say “kind enough” because I can be really annoying to deal with, and getting me to find the time to sit down and answer the questions was no small feat. Thankfully, he’s a patient person.

The article is entitled Nigeria: The Brain Behind the Nigerian Blog Awards and I hope you’ll learn one or two things about the NBAs from reading it. If the interview sparks any questions or comments, please share it on the Global Voices site or here. Thank you!

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/featured/feature-on-the-nigerian-blog-awards/feed/ 2 Nigerian Blog Awards: from popularity contest to recognition of excellence in blogging http://nigerianblogawards.com/discussion/nigerian-blog-awards-popularity-contest-to-recognition-of-excellence-in-blogging/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/discussion/nigerian-blog-awards-popularity-contest-to-recognition-of-excellence-in-blogging/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 05:25:58 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1220 Finalists in the 2011 Awards mobilized their families, friends and colleagues, some of of whom were learning for the first time that they had been fraternizing with a blogger(!), to vote for them and this was perfectly within the rules of the Awards. Moving forward, beginning with the 2012 Nigerian Blog Awards, the focus will be on recognizing excellence in blogging, using clearly defined parameters.

However, we don’t want to forget the role that readers play in the community of bloggers: blogs gain popularity and readership because of the huge group of people who read them and support the writers through comments and by forwarding blog addresses or entries to others, whether or not they themselves are bloggers. Because of this, there will always be a component of the Awards that allows the fans to weigh in.

Deciding on the Awards model to use will take some time but the research has already begun. Here are some of the things that are being considered, and the decisions that have been made (where applicable):

Other nomination and voting processes
In the very first entry this year, we mentioned that the process in place for the Future Awards to manage nominations and voting had caught our eye and although we didn’t completely revamp our system, we did make a change that was inspired by The Future Awards: we required people to register their email addresses and check their email for a confirmation code before their nomination or vote or was registered.

Here’s what The Future Awards have on their site about their process:

According to the organisers, voting takes only 50% of the first stage of judging, so winners are not selected by voting popularity – there is a 4-stage judging process involving a Board of Judges and an Independent Audit Committee headed by veteran journalist Dr. Reuben Abati. There is also a two week-period for members of the public to make complaints about any of the nominees to awards Central Working Committee (CWC). Please send complaints to info@thefuturenigeria.com.

It certainly sounds like a rigorous process that can be admired and emulated (at least in part).

Only bloggers participate in the selection of nominees and in the voting?
It was suggested that only bloggers be allowed to participate in the voting process. The rationale for this might be to allow the winners to be chosen by peers, by people who understand what blogging is about. However, because of the role that readers who don’t blog play in the world of blogging, it would not fit with the spirit of the NBAs to prevent non-bloggers from participating. There are a couple of ways that we could accommodate this request though, and they will be presented once they are fleshed out.

Panel of judges for nomination and/or voting process
Having a panel select the nominees, in whole or in part, might be the best way to move the Awards from appearing like a popularity contest. The list of blogs currently listed on the Nigerian Blog Awards website would be divided into categories (to match the categories that Awards will be given in) and the nominated blogs would have to be selected from those blogs (because the panel members would be expected to review all the blogs in the various categories before deciding on the worthiest blogs). An appropriate panel could be determined in a number of ways:

  • We could ask people to apply to be a panel member (if the applicant is a blogger they would have to forfeit the chance to participate in the Awards as a nominee).

  • We could pick people we think would perform the role of panel member appropriately.

  • We could keep the nomination process the same as in previous years and introduce a second level of nominations where a randomly selected subset of all those who nominated a blog participate in a second vote and select the nominees from a list of the top 10 nominees in each category. Alternatively, the panel could be responsible for picking the top five nominees from the 10 nominees who received the most votes.

These are suggestions only, so if you have a suggestion or a comment on this, please leave it in the comments.

Improvements to the voting phase
For the voting phase, the main improvement that can be made is to have the weight of the vote split between panel of judges and the fans. For now, we’d weigh each group’s vote equally.

Mobilization of friends, family, clients, strangers to nominate or vote for your blog, even if they previously have or had no idea you blog, will always be allowed
Those who are uncomfortable with this idea will likely be more comfortable if the choice of the nominees is not also done by the same process. If the nominees are selected by a panel or a group of “experts”, and only part of the vote is based on who can mobilize the most fans, this might be considered a good solution to concerns that were voiced following the 2011 Awards.

Bottom line: For the past two years, the winners of the Nigerian Blog Awards were determined by popular vote. This will be different in 2012, to reflect the shift to recognizing excellence in blogging.

Please chime in with your suggestions and ideas!

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/discussion/nigerian-blog-awards-popularity-contest-to-recognition-of-excellence-in-blogging/feed/ 25 Will the numerical results of the Nigerian Blog Awards be revealed? http://nigerianblogawards.com/discussion/will-the-numerical-results-of-the-nigerian-blog-awards-be-revealed/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/discussion/will-the-numerical-results-of-the-nigerian-blog-awards-be-revealed/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:45:31 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1154 The short answer is no, for the reasons outlined below. Due to the anticipated changes to the voting process for the 2012 Awards, the practice of announcing only the winners will most likely be upheld.

We did not define it as part of our process
According to the schedule of events, the winners are revealed. This is historically how the Nigerian Blog Awards have been run since their first year in 2010. The 2009 Naija Bloggers’ Awards (which was not run by me) also only revealed the winners.

The longest-running blog awards around, The Weblog Awards, which held their 11th awards this year, the recently-discovered Black Weblog Awards (in their 7th year of operation), and the South African Blog Awards also only reveal the winners. It was decided early on that the Nigerian Blog Awards would declare the winners only.

Revealing the numbers could help the legitimacy/credibility of the Awards
In the comments of earlier posts, some have said that the Nigerian Blog Awards should reveal the numerical counts to bring legitimacy to the Awards, that if you see the numbers then you’ll believe the results.

Not necessarily:

If you are skeptical about the results, seeing the numerical values may not convince you, because how will you know that the results being shown are the actual results and are not doctored? If X has been declared the winner, and if we were in the business of rigging the Awards, we’d be silly to post results that show Y as the actual winner. Even if screen shots were taken and provided to the public, someone might mention how easy it would be to use PhotoShop to doctor images. Short of sending all interested parties the login credentials for the back-end, there is no way a skeptic would know for sure that we haven’t “cooked the books”…unless a decision is made to trust the process.

As mentioned in the post on the integrity of the Awards, it’s hard to imagine why the results would be fixed, but maybe that’s naivete on our parts. Either way, each person reading this has to decide whether or not they’ll trust the Awards and the process laid out. We do not want to be in a position where we’re on the defensive and always having to prove our legitimacy.

The good news is the process will be changing for next year. Although there will still be a “popular vote” component, it will only be part of the process.

But wouldn’t seeing the results help a nominated blogger who lost see how s/he could improve?
At the moment there are over 800 blogs listed on our site. To be one of the finalists is an accomplishment. The polls are not visible to the public during the voting process, and this is to prevent the nominees from trying to stuff the ballot because they know they are “x” votes behind the current leader. If you find out that you were second place in the category you were nominated in, and that you lost by just two votes, it would be hard to use that information to tangibly impact your campaign next year, since you won’t know what the margin will be between first and second place in 2012. There are too many variables to control in the campaigning and voting processes for a nominee to predict how hard they have to work to win (though next year it won’t be strictly “popular vote”).

If you discover you were in last place in your category and got a very low number of votes, hopefully you’d be just as motivated as the first runner-up to strive to do better next year. The actual numerical result would hopefully not change the effort you’d put into blogging.

Some might just want to know how close or far they were from the winner, but this could backfire: those who thought they were closer to the winner may be disappointed to find out the true results, and some who lost by a very small margin may feel good that they were close, but could also feel that the margin was too close for the other nominee to be declared the winner. It could prolong any negative feelings those who did not win feel.

That last point is a lot more minor but we hope the first two points in particular explain why the process of announcing the winners only will likely be the way moving forward.

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/discussion/will-the-numerical-results-of-the-nigerian-blog-awards-be-revealed/feed/ 2 The integrity of the Nigerian Blog Awards http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/the-integrity-of-the-nigerian-blog-awards/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/the-integrity-of-the-nigerian-blog-awards/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:05:33 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1162 The blogging community (bloggers and their fans) are making their views known following the July 15, 2011 revelation of the results of the 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards (NBAs) on twitter, and the subsequent posting of the results on this site. Some have posted reviews of the awards process on their blog; others have asked questions on their blogs or on twitter. Some are ecstatic with the results, while others are furious. We appreciate the conversations that are taking place because it’s important to hear what people think of the awards so that we can develop something that meets the needs of those it has been created for.

For me, the most important aspect of the awards is its integrity. Last year was the first year the Nigerian Blog Awards ran under that name, and I worked hard to reach out to everyone who had a comment about how the NBAs operated. In my attempts to address everyone’s concerns, which I naively thought was possible, I quickly realized (and was reminded) that it is impossible to make everyone happy with every aspect of the awards: either the process for the Awards, or those who emerged winners, or the quality of the blogs, the bloggers themselves, or the organizers would be critiqued. For every person who is happy with the results but disgusted with the process, there will be someone whose views are the exact opposite.

I was (and remain) baffled that some think the organizer of the Awards would commit time and money into something that in the end is “rigged” or “fixed” to give a particular outcome. I struggle to determine what the point of that would be. After all:

  • There is currently no tangible prize associated with the NBAs: no trophy or plaque to take home, no cash prize that is dispensed. Does that mean these awards are worthless? Absolutely not! The goal of the Awards is to bring bloggers in the Nigerian community together and facilitate connections. The awards strive to highlight bloggers who are creating content that deserves to be seen by the wider community and bring traffic to the blogs that might otherwise remain undiscovered. Following last year’s Awards, some proudly used the fact that they were the winner of the Nigerian Blog Awards to add more credibility to their work. We love this and appreciate it! It is my hope that in addition to the lovely badges that some winners are already displaying on their blogs, we are able to offer a more tangible prize in the future. My point is at this time, the winner does not receive a physical prize.

  • If I wanted to declare a blog the best blog in a particular category, nothing prevents me from doing so. Nothing prevents you from doing so. There is no obligation on my part to set up an impartial process and directly seek the opinion of Seye Kuyinu, who worked on the voting processes of the Future Nigeria Awards, in addition to the professional judgement of those who are familiar with computer programming and databases and work in that area for a living, to develop the process that was used in the 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards.

  • The process for the awards is clearly detailed on this website. It is my hope that anyone critiquing the Awards read it, but I understand that many visitors to this site came to fill out the nomination form and later to vote, and support the blogs they thought were meritorious. If you did not read the details of the process you participated in, and did not ask questions if there were any parts that did not make sense to you, it is unfair to expect the 2011 Awards at this stage to be modified to address those concerns. I strongly encourage anyone with questions to read the 2011 schedule of the awards.

    Both the nomination and voting process were determined by those who took the time to register their email and weigh in on what was happening. All along it was clear that the blog(s) with the most nominations/votes would win. To discover people are surprised or disappointed that the winners were those who mobilized the most fans is baffling. It’s disappointing to hear critiques of a process that was laid out clearly and not criticized until after the fact. However, as always, the comments received will be used to improve on next year’s awards.

In the end, you have to make a decision regarding what you think about the integrity of the Awards: if you think the Nigerian Blog Awards are “rigged” or “fixed”, or feel the process was not transparent, no explanations or show of votes will satisfy you. After all, if I was rigging the awards, wouldn’t it follow that I’d make sure any numerical results that are released support the results?

Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave your comments. The next blog entry will answer the question Will the numerical results of the Nigerian Blog Awards be revealed?

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/the-integrity-of-the-nigerian-blog-awards/feed/ 37 Winner of the SHORT LITTLE CONTEST http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/winner-of-the-short-little-contest/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/winner-of-the-short-little-contest/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:01:14 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1201 On the day of the awards, a SHORT LITTLE CONTEST was announced: the person who could predict the winners of the Nigerian Blog Awards most accurately would be the winner of either a $25 iTunes gift card or $25USD. The stipulation was that the winner could get a maximum of five responses wrong.

But we’re feeling generous here so we decided regardless of how many answers were correct, the person who got the most answers correct would still win the prize.

The winner is therefore Blessing, who got 13 of the 30 responses correct.

Congratulations! You have received an email requesting which of the prizes you’d like.

We thank all contestants for their participation.

The first entry of our Nigerian Blog Awards autopsy is coming up tomorrow. In it, we’ll address the topic of the integrity of the Awards.

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/winner-of-the-short-little-contest/feed/ 1 Thank YOU! http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/thank-you/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/thank-you/#comments Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:03:26 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1188 The Nigerian Blog Awards have come to a close for another year and the results have been revealed. Before we start our autopsy of the awards (which begins in earnest on July 19), I’d like to use this space to thank all the people who have contributed in one way or another to these Awards.

One of my best friends in the world, VIB, helped me with the computer programming and database aspects of the Awards. She was responsible for setting up the email validation system that many of you used. Any glitches in the system regarding getting the confirmation email in a timely manner were related to my web host being surprised at the sudden surge in activity/drain on resources and had nothing to do with my friend’s hard work. VIB: the support you have given me during this process is invaluable and I am truly grateful. VIB is neither a Nigerian nor a blogger, but as a result of these Awards she has discovered at least one blog that she will probably start reading regularly. Isn’t that great?

I must also thank tweeter extraordinaire happyBBB for her assistance once again this year. Besides writing the most popular blog entry of the 2011 Awards, she also worked hard on the twitter front to make sure that those who hadn’t heard of the Nigerian Blog Awards knew what it was and she made sure they were also following @naijablogawards on twitter. She directed people with questions or concerns to me and let me know what the general feelings on twitter were. I love twitter as much as the next person but when it comes to knowing which blog goes with which twitter account, and doing some quick research, happyBBB exceeded all my expectations. Thank you once again!

Otondo offered his services to design the banner for the 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards and the green badge too: aren’t they lovely? I’m blown away by his work and very very appreciative of his contributions to the 2011 Awards.

Sugabelly approached me about designing the badges for the awards and they are fabulous. I shouldn’t pick favourites but allow me to post my absolute favourite one here:


I wish I had won an award so I could display one of these lovelies on my site! (Don’t worry: for conflict of interest reasons this will never be a possibility!). I appreciate the time that she took to hand-draw each graphic and the work she did to make the badges consistent with Otondo’s work. If you would like to commission some work from her, please visit this link.

Seye Kuyinu is a friend and my adopted brother, and I regularly picked his brain during this process. Since before the 2010 Awards I have been picking his brain about the devising a nomination and voting system that was rigorous, and based on our conversations over the past year and a half, VIB was able to create the system that was used this year. Seye’s skills are many, and he also helped me design badges for this year’s winners, which you will likely see on twitter accounts shortly. Seye: I am grateful.

******

The people recognized above were invaluable to me, and the Awards would have been hard to implement without them. But imagine if we didn’t have YOU to nominate, vote, retweet? If you didn’t visit this page to read up on the latest comments and encourage the organizers? The awards would have been a complete failure. So, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for everything you did: from following the orders requests of friends and family to visit this site and nominate a blog or two, to coming back to vote, to participating in the live twitter awards show, to provding your feedback about the awards. Without you, the awards would not have grown to what they are today. Everyone reading this entry is appreciated.

Thank you.

Please come back on July 19 for the start of the review of the 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards. We look forward to reading your constructive comments!

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/thank-you/feed/ 17 The winners – 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/the-winners-2011-nigerian-blog-awards/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/the-winners-2011-nigerian-blog-awards/#comments Sat, 16 Jul 2011 04:42:00 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1156 During an entertaining twitter event, the winners of the 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards were announced. They are:

  1. Best Beauty Blog
  2. Best Blog by a Blogger based outside of Nigeria
  3. Best Blog by a Nigeria-based Blogger
  4. Best Book, Poetry or Writing Blog
  5. Best Collaborative or Group Blog
  6. Best Daily Read
  7. Best Designed Blog
  8. Best Entertainment Blog
  9. Best Fashion or Style Blog
  10. Best Fitness or Health Blog
  11. Best Food Blog
  12. Best Magazine or News Blog
  13. Best Music Blog
  14. Best New Blog
  15. Best Parenting Blog
  16. Best Personal Blog
  17. Best Photography Blog
  18. Best Political Blog
  19. Best Religion Blog
  20. Best Science or Technology Blog
  21. Best Sports Blog
  22. Best Student Blog
  23. Best Travel Blog
  24. Best Wedding Blog
  25. Most Controversial Blog
  26. Most Humourous Blog
  27. Most Educational Blog
  28. Most Inspiring Blog
  29. Most Unique Voice in a Blog
  30. Nigerian Blog of the Year

So…how well did the voters do with regard to picking the winners?

]]> http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/the-winners-2011-nigerian-blog-awards/feed/ 98 Twitter awards show and win Win WIN! http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/twitter-awards-show-and-win-win-win/ http://nigerianblogawards.com/details/twitter-awards-show-and-win-win-win/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 06:00:07 +0000 Good Naija Girl http://nigerianblogawards.com/?p=1126 After a week’s wait the day of our twitter awards show announcing the winners of the 2011 Nigerian Blog Awards has arrived! In just 18 hours the winners will be revealed!

Answers to some questions you may have:

What is a twitter awards show?
The twitter awards show refers to the announcement of the winners in each of the 30 categories of the Nigerian Blog Awards on twitter. To take part you should have a twitter account and be following @naijablogawards. If you don’t have a twitter account you can follow along by pointing your browser to http://twitter.com/naijablogawards and refreshing the page every now and then.

When will the twitter awards show begin?
The show will begin TODAY (July 15, 2011) at 8:00pm EST, which is 1:00am Nigerian Time. We know that may be past some of your bedtimes but it’s the weekend! If you really can’t stay up, the winners will be posted on our blog on Saturday July 16 by 12:00pm EST (5:00pm Nigerian Time).

What can you expect from the awards show?
The winner of the first award, Best beauty Blog, will be announced at 8:00pm EST sharp, and winners will be announced every five minutes following that. This means it will take just over 2 hours to announce all the winners. The awards will be announced in the order posted on the nominees page.

How can you participate in the awards show?
We would appreciate your participation by retweeting our tweets announcing the winners and letting us know how you feel about the winners or the blogs that didn’t win. Let’s keep our comments constructive though.

******

To have a little fun before the awards begin, we’re having a SHORT LITTLE CONTEST:

The first person who correctly predicts the winners in each of the 30 categories will receive a $25 itunes gift card or $25USD! Please note that only one prize is available and it will be given to the first person to correctly identify the winners in each of the 30 categories. You’re allowed to get a maximum of 5 answers wrong, so there is room for error! This was called a short contest on twitter because your answer must be received by 6:59pm EST (11:59pm Nigerian Time) today, July 15, 2011. Please send your answers to win@nigerianblogawards.com. Entries received elsewhere or after the deadline will not be counted! One entry per person please!

To play along:

  1. Cut and paste the following into a blank email message using your favourite email client (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, your work email address…).

    1. Best Beauty Blog

    2. Best Blog by a Blogger based outside of Nigeria

    3. Best Blog by a Nigeria-based Blogger

    4. Best Book, Poetry or Writing Blog

    5. Best Collaborative or Group Blog

    6. Best Daily Read

    7. Best Designed Blog

    8. Best Entertainment Blog

    9. Best Fashion or Style Blog

    10. Best Fitness or Health Blog

    11. Best Food Blog

    12. Best Magazine or News Blog

    13. Best Music Blog

    14. Best New Blog

    15. Best Parenting Blog

    16. Best Personal Blog

    17. Best Photography Blog

    18. Best Political Blog

    19. Best Religion Blog

    20. Best Science or Technology Blog

    21. Best Sports Blog

    22. Best Student Blog

    23. Best Travel Blog

    24. Best Wedding Blog

    25. Most Controversial Blog

    26. Most Humourous Blog

    27. Most Educational Blog

    28. Most Inspiring Blog

    29. Most Unique Voice in a Blog

    30. Nigerian Blog of the Year

  2. Visit our list of nominees and pick a winner in each category.

  3. Fill out an answer for EACH category that you cut and paste into your email client. If you miss a category, your ballot will be disqualified. ONE ballot per person!

  4. Send your email to win@nigerianblogawards.com before 6:59pm EST (11:59pm Nigerian Time) TODAY (July 15, 2011) with your answers.

  5. Wait for your email declaring you winner (winner will be notified on Monday July 18, 2011)!

We hope you enjoy this contest…see you live on twitter in 18 hours!

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