Each year there are considerably more blogs/sites nominated. This year was considerably more than last year with increased quality. Short list nominations increased from a maximum of 25 in previous years to 40 in several categories for this reason.

As a general guide factors considered in shortlisting included:
1. For blogs and influential posts – indicators of reader engagement (such as comments, bookmarking, pingbacks – using metrics provided by Postrank – http://www.postrank.com/) and number of times the site was nominated
2. For Tweeters – conversation indicators (such as number of following/followers, types of conversations, whether account was public or private)

This needs to be taken as a guide only because there are 19 categories –
1) they are each very unique (the types of things considered for Best Individual Blog, Best New Blog and Best Teacher Blog are totally different from Best Student Blog and Best Class Blog)
2) some categories are considerably more competitive than others

You mentioned the criteria includes how widely-read a blog is and how many subscribers there are. This would be reasonable criteria for short-listing, though ‘widely-read’ should be defined, since many of the rejected blogs have hundreds of subscribers. I did not see that criteria posted with the nominations process (or anywhere on the awards site). Since nominations closed, I’ve seen a few things added to the site to help clarify the process, but I haven’t seen that (yet). If it existed and I overlooked it, that would change my opinion about this issue drastically.

The confusion for me and apparently others seems to stem from believing that all nominations were equally valid, providing that they were properly categorized and not self-nominations. If that isn’t the case, I think it’s fair to disclose the other criteria in short-listing so that there is no confusion for 2010.

I think the criticisms of the process, while no doubt based on genuine feelings of disappointment, are doing a disservice to the organisers who make this whole process happen. I know from conversations I’ve had, that there is a ton of work that goes on behind the scenes and I’m sure the folk who run the thing have done the best job they can with the resources they have, and at some point we just have to accept the umpire’s decision.

My own blog was nominated yet did not make the nominations short list. This was surprising to me because a) I didn’t realize that there even WAS a short list and assumed the nomination ‘counted’, and b) the person who nominated me DID make short list and I expected his opinion about nominations to be validated.

I understand the need to short-list; what I don’t understand is HOW the nominations were short-listed. What criteria was used? Is there a reason why this wasn’t explained prior to asking for nomination submissions?

Among the short-listed nominations, there seems to be a heavy emphasis on tech blogs and 21st century thinkers, while those bloggers who focus more on the practical aspects of teaching and speak to classroom realities were slighted. Was this intended or is it only my own perception?

I really appreciate the work you all do in putting together these awards, and I’m excited about checking out new blogs that aren’t part of my PLN. I would, however, love some more information about the nomination short-list process, and would like to see some discussion about how to make the process less subjective for next year’s awards.

Unfortunately some of the categories had large numbers of nominations (for example some were well over 100). It wasn’t possible to short list all nominations because it makes it unmanageable for everyone.

This meant nominations in most categories went through a short-listing process and each nomination was examined closely by the judges.

You can read more about the process here – http://edublogawards.com/voting-is-now-open-for-the-2009-edublog-awards/

http://themortonschool.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-of-edublogs.html

Here’s my link for my nominations again (and I did submit this online & follow all the rules so I’m sure it’s just a simple error) – http://classroomcanada.blogspot.com/2009/12/very-special-sunday-post-my-edublog.html

Here’s the link where Siobhan Curious submits her nominations where my blog is nominated –
http://siobhancurious.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/the-2009-edublog-awards-my-nominations/

I hope you’re able to include these ones to the list that we can vote on.
Thanks!
Victoria

http://thecornerstoneforteachers.blogspot.com/2009/11/nomination-time.html

We still get a lot of self nomination via the contact form – but they are automatically discounted because they haven’t followed the process. Public posts people as less likely to self nominate.

Most of these types of processes we’ve put in place are to minimise rigging. Similarly we have to limit voting to one vote per IP per category because people were rigging the votes also :(

Would simplify your sorting down a great deal.

Just a thought for next year.