Two Important Announcements

On Wednesday December 8th, we will be announcing the finalists for the 2010 Blogisattva Awards. On Sunday December 12th, we will be unveiling the winners.  We want to thank everyone again for their patience and support!

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Secondly, as you all may have heard, the Buddhist Geeks are hosting a conference in July 2011 called Discover the Emerging Face of Buddhism. Nate and I spoke with them just yesterday, and they have volunteered to donate a quite sizable discount to the conference for the finalists ($50) and winners ($100) of the Blogisattva awards. We are very thankful to them for taking some time and effort to help recognize the online Buddhist blogging community!

From their website about the conference:

Taking place July 29th – 31st, 2011 in Los Angeles, Buddhist Geeks | The Conference brings together some of the most exciting teachers, leaders and thinkers from the US and beyond as Buddhist Geeks continues its ongoing mission to discover the emerging face of Buddhism. With a vibrant program of presentations, workshops, performance and participant-led elements and its inclusive non-denominational attitude, #bgeeks11 will be the most innovative, energetic and relevant event in the Buddhist world. We would love you to join us.

By being part of  The Conference you will:

• be inspired by amazing speakers, some of the freshest voices in the Buddhist world today
• make connections with people around the world who—like you—are passionate about 21st century Buddhism
• shape the conversation in an event where everyone has a valuable perspective

This landmark Los Angeles weekend be an energetic adventure into the opportunities, the issues and the excitement of 21st century Buddhism.  Don’t miss out.

thinkBuddha and Monkey Mind Honored

Both Will Buckingham's blog thinkBuddha [link!] and James Ford's Monkey Mind [link!] have been honored recently for excellence.

thinkBuddha was named by the [London] TIMESONLINE, in its February 15 edition, as one of the 100 best blogs in the world. The Times' article estimates that there are now 200 million blogs on the internet. Hey, that's not bad! Will's blog is one in two million; in the upper crust, better than 99.99995% of the blogs out there. Yowza!

In the Times' bloggers' article about the top 100, Bryan Appleyard waxes enthusiastic. He writes,

Blogs let you jot down what you think, feel or know and, at the speed of light, publish it to the world. They now cover everything from quantum theory to politics to low-life celebrity gossip and intimate personal confessions. They can be vast publications written by teams of writers, or fragmented jottings from a student pad. They are the most successful, addictive, potent and radical application of all the new technologies and applications spawned by the personal computer.

Boy howdy, that!

The citation of thinkBuddha's excellence is on page five of the article, where the six best original thinkers are named, and reads as follows: “A blog that brilliantly suggested a Buddhist bus in response to the atheist and Christian advertising signs now stuck on traffic jams around the country. The Madhyamaka bus would bear the slogan: 'Neither an entity nor a nonentity moves in any of the three ways. So motion, bus and route are nonexistent'. That settles that.”

Monkey Mind got some love from the UU Blog Awards 2008, getting a silver 2nd place award in the category "Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary" and a bronze 3rd place award in the category "Best Political Commentary - Single entry" for the post "A Briefest Reflection on American Politics and Liberal Religion."

Ford is a Unitarian Universalist minister who heads the First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island. He is also [quoting his blogsite] "a long-time Zen practitioner ordained as a Soto Zen priest and one of the guiding teachers for the Boundless Way Zen project, currently serving as school abbot."

At the Boundless Way webspace, we are told this re the UU - Buddhism connection:

"Many western-born Buddhists, particularly those of European descent, have found Unitarian Universalist congregations welcoming communities within which they could raise their children. And these Buddhists, including our three guiding teachers, have been active in returning the favor by offering Zen and other Buddhist practices within those congregations.

"Today there is an ongoing and fruitful dialogue between western Buddhists and Unitarian Universalism expressed in part through the UU Buddhist Fellowship. Boundless Way Zen sees as one part of its mission a furthering of that dialog."

Will Buckingham and thinkBuddha have been nominated for nine Blogisattva Awards. Will is the recipient of the 2008 Wordsmithing Award. James Ford and Monkey Mind have been nominees for eight Blogisattvas, including seven last year. James/Monkey Mind won in the category "Best Buddhist Practice or Dharma Post" last year for the blogpost "Briefest ruminations on the death of a child"

Awards Categories for 2008

Merry Christmas, Everybody.

The Awards Categories for the 2008 Blogisattvas, honoring English-language Buddhist blogging in calendar year 2007, are 'firming up,' though -- appropriately for anything Buddhist -- all things remain subject to change.

As of this hour, there are seven new categories, while three have gone by the boards, giving us a total of 25 happy categories in the new year. The expectation is that there will be five nominees in each category for a total of 125 nominations. Last year, there were 21 categories and 115 total nominations.

There will be twelve categories honoring whole blogs, including the premier award, Blog of the Year, Svaha!

The Wordsmithing Award will be back this year, honoring the best writing done by a blogger, which can span any number of blogs. Also back is the Niche Award, which as its title suggests, might go to any of a number of uneasy-to-categorize things: unusual blogs, series of posts within a blog, or a service that aids the buddhoblogosphere.

A new category is for Best Single Photograph taken by a blogger or associate, exhibited in a post during the year

Last year, there were four categories of awards specifically for excellent posts. This year there will be ten, as Best Philosophical or Psychological Blog Post; Best Science Blog Post; Best Political Blog Post; Best 'Life' Blog Post; Best Practice or Dharma Blog Post; and Best Engage-the-World Blog Post join Best [Overall] Blog Post; Most-Compassionate Blog Post; Funniest Blog Post; and Best Multi-part Blog Post as awards categories.

Nominees and winners of the awards will be determined by votes tallied by a voting service. Voting will be done by a select, divergent body of Buddhist bloggers and blog readers [of about twenty in number] who affirm their votes will be made after a careful assessment of the excellence of the candidates in each category. Almost unique in the realm of blogging awards, the Blogisattvas are given wholly for merit, not based on popularity. There is nothing we like better than to reveal previously-hidden sources of excellence in the buddhoblogosphere.

Awards Categories for 2008
[Note: These are the categories' nicknames. The formal, long-winded names are yet to be reviewed by a grammarian and translated into Pali.]
"#" designates each of the seven 'new' categories this year

Blog of the Year
Blog Post of the Year
Wordsmithing Award
Best New Blog
Best Practice or Dharma Blog
Best First Person Blogging
Best Philosophy or Science Blogging
Best Compassionate Blogging
Best Political Blog
Blog Use of Graphics
Blog Use of Quotations
Funniest Blog Post
Most Compassionate Blog Post
# Philosophical or Psychological Blog Post
# Science Blog Post
# Political Blog Post
# 'Life' Blog Post
# Practice or Dharma Blog Post
# Engage-the-World Blog Post
# Best Single Photograph, taken by blogger or an associate, used in a post
Best Wide Range of Topics Blogging
Best Blog Design [Clean, Straightforward, Unaffected]
Best Blog Design [Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant]
Best Niche blogging
Best Multi-part Blog Post

Tags: buddhism, buddhoblogosphere, blogisattva, blogging awards

Awards Season is Acomin' FAST

Just writing to let anybody subscribed to this blog, or whomever otherwise comes along, know that another season of Buddhist blogging awards [i.e., the Blogisattvas] is coming.

News about the 2008 Awards, honoring excellence in English-language Buddhist blogging during the year 2007, is forthcoming.

Blog on, y'all

- Tom Armstrong
Awards Administrator

Tags: buddhism, buddhoblogosphere, blogisattva, blogging awards

Intent of the Blogisattva Awards and a Few Words on Selecting Nominees and Winners

The Blogisattva Awards are intended to get out the good news that Buddhist blogs make for great reading. The buddhoblogosphere can be helpful to one’s practice or in helping people face the stress and challenges of knocking about on this old planet of ours, in addition to being fun and interesting to read.

Blogs, bloggers and posts nominated for awards or selected for awards will not necessarily be the very best blogs/bloggers/posts in their category out there. I do not pretend to be able to discern with precision what is magnificent from what is merely excellent. Often spectacular blogs and posts will be overlooked. And sometimes some less-than-sterling stuff will get nommed or win an award. Also, certainly, the idea of best is muddy and uncertain in this realm where judgment is necessarily subject to individual preference and prejudice.

But because of care and interest in what might be wonderful in the world of Buddhist bloggery, I will be bringing to the fore a boatload of stuff, most of which is really great, world-class reading material that deserves blog-readers’ attention. I hope you will come, read, and decide for yourself what you like.

A criticism has been expressed that these awards might cause some bloggers to alter what they do for the specific purpose of getting an award. I doubt that will happen. For one thing, it is known that the Blogisattvas are truly just a tiny enterprise and that Buddhists are immune to hoopla, fanfare, wild enthusiasm and anything that might make them giddy. Hooray for that!!! Also, the blogging art is, in and of itself, already, so exquisite a creative exercise that it cannot be augmented with greater pleasure; it is absolute bliss, a hardened sphere of perfect enjoyment. But in a larger sense, we cannot nominate, we cannot award, we cannot hallow the buddhoblogosphere. The brave Buddhist bloggers who struggle here have consecrated the Internet far above our poor power to add or detract.

Selecting nominees and winners

Generally, what is sought in making selections is excellence appropriate to the category. A few blogs, bloggers or posts that are a little blinky about whether they are Buddhist or not can be at a disadvantage. Blogs that don’t welcome comments and bloggers who don’t respond to their commenters can be at a disadvantage in being selected for awards. It is considered bad form not to have either a blogroll or a favorite-posts widget of some sort on a blog. If a blog isn’t opening doors to other blogs, it will be noticed.

But all this is not to say that bloggers should conform to what is sought by the Blogisattva Committee. Rather, I am just letting y’all know what minor elements are considered excellent and the committee will be aware of when your blog is perused. Just letting y’all know, is all.

Technorati tags: Blogisattva, Blogisattva Awards, blogging awards, buddhoblogosphere, buddhism

Announcement of 2007 Blogisattva Awards Categories

The 2007 Blogisattva Awards Committee [of 1] is pleased to announce the categories and number of nominees within each category for the 2007 Awards that honor achievement in Buddhist blogging in calendar year 2006.

This year, the sophomore year of the awards, there will be 24 winners in 22 categories chosen from an aggregate of 100 nominees. This is up from 14 winners in 14 categories and an aggregate of 70 nominations last year.

One award category has been discontinued: Best Celebrity-Writer Blog. Many of the other 13 awards categories' names from last year have been tweaked this year to better describe what the award is for, or to change, slightly, the nature of the award.

Nine new awards categories have been created.

Four new categories were created to recognize blogging in styles not honored last year. Five categories were created to honor blog posts of different types.

A rule was written this year with respect to the two blog-design awards. Blogs nominated in the design categories last year that had not significantly altered their design at the end of 2006 are not eligible to be nominated this year.

Unlike last year when there were five nominees for each of the awards, the count of nominations varies by award this year. The number of nominations per award is governed by a rough sense of the population of candidates out there that might be appropriately nominated.

The awards categories in 2007 are the following with the number of nominations and winners in brackets. An asterisk indicates a title tweak. Text in orange indicates the award goes to a blog; red, the blogger(s); blue, a blog post(s).:

The thirteen carried-over categories:

• Best Achievement in Clean, Straightforward, Unaffected Design [4/1]
• Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design [4/1]
• * Best Niche Blog, Unusual-Function Blog, Blog Service, or Serial within a Blog [4/1]
• Best New Blog [5/1]
• * Best Achievement Blogging on Integral Issues [5/1]
• * Best Achievement Blogging on Matters Philosophical or Scientific [5/1]
• * Best Achievement Blogging in the First Person [on events in one's own life on in gonzo style] [5/1]
• * Best Achievement Blogging Opinion Pieces or about Political Issues [5/1]
• Blogger Best Demonstating a Multiplicity of Talents [3/1]
• * Best Achievement in Kind and Compassionate Blogging [5/1]
• Best Achievement in Skillful Writing [5/1]
• * Blog Posts of the Year [12/3]
• Blog of the Year, Svaha! [7/1]

The nine new categories this year:

• Best Achievement Blogging on Buddhist Practice or Dharma [5/1]
• Best Achievement in Use of Graphics in a Blog [4/1]
• Best Achievement in Use of Quotations in a Blog [3/1]
• Best Achievement Blogging on a Wide Range of Topic Interests [4/1]
• Best Multi-Part Blog Post [3/1]
• Best Achievement in a Compassionate Blog Post [3/1]
• Best Achievement in a Integral Blog Post [3/1]
• Best Achievement with Humor in a Blog Post [3/1]
• Best Conversation-Sparking Blog Post [3/1]

Technorati tags: Buddhism, Blogisattva Awards, Blogisattva, awards, blogging awards, buddhoblogosphere