I considered letting them die this year. But the ABBAs are coming back. Nominations open next week for the best in aid blogging.
Go here to see the results from the 2011 edition.
Now would be the time for the crowd to make suggestions on ways to make it better this time around. Last year there was a problem of diversity. It is something I hope to rectify this year and will look to you for some help.
Also, there will be changes. I know that, for example, Chris Blattman will not be in the running for best blog. He won it to years in a row and it is time to move along. I would bet he could win it again this year, and for good reason. One thought is to form a panel of sorts with the past winners and have them account for half of the vote with the other half determined through an audience poll. That could protect against it being a popularity contest while still being influenced by the crowd.
Suggest away. I am all ears. I have tried not to take this too seriously, but the criticisms from last year force me to at least think a bit more about it this time around.
Go here to see the results from the 2011 edition.
Now would be the time for the crowd to make suggestions on ways to make it better this time around. Last year there was a problem of diversity. It is something I hope to rectify this year and will look to you for some help.
Also, there will be changes. I know that, for example, Chris Blattman will not be in the running for best blog. He won it to years in a row and it is time to move along. I would bet he could win it again this year, and for good reason. One thought is to form a panel of sorts with the past winners and have them account for half of the vote with the other half determined through an audience poll. That could protect against it being a popularity contest while still being influenced by the crowd.
Suggest away. I am all ears. I have tried not to take this too seriously, but the criticisms from last year force me to at least think a bit more about it this time around.
5 comments:
Hi Tom, I look forward to the new ABBAs!
In terms of suggestions, I just checked last year's awards and I remember being a little confused with the categories. I dont know if it makes sense, but my own rss feeds are organized according to the main topic of the blog. It's true that most blogs don't have a narrow focus, but they do have a general sphere of interest. Here's just a rough idea:
- economics/business and development
- Aid, NGOs and development
- Politics/conflict and development
- Health and development
- Education, culture and development
And of course there are the general categories "best development blog", "best new blog", "best twitter" etc.
About excluding Chris Blattman, I dont know.. it would be like excluding Lionel Messi from the Ballon D'or because he's too good and he won four times already. I would let him run, and win, if the blogosphere thinks he deserves it!
In fairness to Tom, I recommended that I be excluded. Or, rather, to be more systematic, that past winners in a particular category be excluded for at least one year, maybe multiple years, or perhaps even forever.
Though I may have to reconsider after the comparison to Messi. You should probably start calling yourself the Messi of aid blogging.
You may change your mind after learning that I had to Google "Messi" to figure out who that was. My first reaction was, "He must mean Messier".
I also had to google "Messier". Not sure if you mean the 18th century French Astronomer Charles Messier or the current "special assistant to the president of the New York Rangers" Mark Messier. I'd stick to Lionel Messi if I were you!
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