The BOBs (weblog award)

The BOBs – Best of the Blogs - is the world’s largest international Weblog competition. Founded and sponsored by Deutsche Welle, the German International Broadcasting Service, the BOBs are now in their fourth year. The competition kicks off each year in the beginning of September and ends with a public award ceremony each November in Berlin.

Through the BOBs, Deutsche Welle focuses attention on the promotion of freedom of information and the press around the world. In cooperation with Reporters Without Borders, Deutsche Welle has presented a special award to Bloggers promoting these specific ideals since 2005.

Weblogs, Podcasts and Videoblogs from all over the world can be submitted for the BOBs in one of the following 10 languages: Arabic, Chinese, German, English, French, Dutch, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Award Categories

The BOBs consist of 5 prize categories (all languages) and one award in each language of the competition (10 languages). In each of the 15 different Award Categories the BOBs offer both a Jury and a User-Choice Award.

In 2007 the following categories will be:

• Best Weblog
• Best Podcast
• Best Videoblog
• Reporters Without Borders Award
• Blogwurst Award (Our award for any different and/or quirky blog)
• Best Weblog / Language (one per each of the 10 participating languages)

How the Competition Works

The BOBs presents prizes for both Jury and User's Choice awards. The User's Choice winners are chosen by worldwide online voting. The Jury prices are awarded by a jury of international Bloggers.

Blogopedia

The Blogopedia is an online catalogue featuring a growing inventory of blogs written in ten languages. It allows the user to browse through the catalog by country, language or subject matter.

To date over 3,000 different blogs, podcasts and videoblogs have been entered into the Blogopedia by users and bloggers from all over the world.

Award Winners 2006

• Best Weblog: Sunlight Foundation (Jury Award), Lisa Neun (User Award)
• Reporters Without Borders Award: Tanine Sokut und Kosoof (Jury Award), Blog da Alcinéa Cavalcante (User Award)
• Best Podcast: Muzimei Studio (Jury Award), Haftegi (User Award)
• Best Corporate Blog: Football-Club (Jury Award), Blog do Tas (User Award)
• Blogwurst Award: Mehrdad Aref-Adib (Jury Award), Unusual Real Man (User Award)
• Best Weblog Arabic: Jar el Kamar (Jury Award), Nostalgic Story Teller (User Award)
• Best Weblog Chinese: The Colourful World - Shuweicao's Blog (Jury Award), The Colourful World - Shuweicao's Blog (User Award)
• Best Weblog Dutch: Bureau Belgrado (Jury Award), Bieslog (User Award)
• Best Weblog English: PaidContent.org (Jury Award), Black Looks (User Award)
• Best Weblog French: La Buvette des Alpages (Jury Award), La Buvette des Alpages (User Award)
• Best Weblog German: Letters from Rungholt (Jury Award), Beetlebum (User Award)
• Best Weblog Persian: Zeitun (Jury Award), An soie Diwar (User Award)
• Best Weblog Portuguese: Apocalipse Motorizado (Jury Award), Garotas Que Dizem Ni (User Award)
• Best Weblog Russian: Magazeta: All about China (Jury Award), Magazeta: All about China (User Award)
• Best Weblog Spanish: La Huella Digital (Jury Award), Mangas Verdes (User Award)

The Jury winners in the category “Best Weblog” of the past years include:

• Sunlight Foundation (2006)
• Más respeto, que soy tu madre (2005)
• 18摸狗日报 (2004)

ee also

Deutsche Welle
Reporters Without Borders

External links

* [http://www.thebobs.com The BOBs]
* [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15582 Reporters without Borders ]
* [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2227325,00.html Deutsche Welle]
* [http://blogs.dw-world.de/bobsblog BOBs Blog]
* [http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/blog Sunlightfoundation Blog]
* [http://www.lisaneun.com/l9log/ Lisa Neun Blog]
* [http://www.aref-adib.com/ Aref-Adib Blog]