UPDATED TIMELINE: Announcing the 2010 Version of the Community Keynote: The Voices of the Year

"For me, blogging has always been about two things: quality writing and community."
- Maggie Dammit, commenting on Surrender Dorothy

The BlogHer Community Keynote has been one of the most treasured events at our last two annual conferences. We’re excited to announce that in 2010, BlogHer will expand this event:

Introducing the 2010 BlogHer Voices of the Year. Nominations are now open!

With the 2010 BlogHer Voices of the Year, we will expand the community keynote four-fold to honor 100 bloggers as finalists in the categories of Humor, Opinion/Editorial, Life, Geeky/Nerdy and Design (see category definitions below). From this group of 100 writers, a committee of curators will select 15 bloggers to share their work at BlogHer '10.

Our goal is to help the BlogHer community shine a spotlight on the bloggers whose creativity deserves international recognition. You can submit your own work; you can submit the work of others, but there will be no public voting...which means no public vote recruiting. This is not about popularity, or about how many followers or fans anyone has. It is about what the Community Keynote and the BlogHer Voice of the Week have always been about: Incredible words, designs, voices.

Rules of the Road for the 2010 BlogHer Voices of the Year:

1. Recognition for writing
All community members are invited to nominate original blog writing posted via text, video, audio or, in the case of the blog category Design, work presented publicly online. Please nominate individual writings or creations for one of the following five categories:

- Humor: Bring on the funny, because we know the bloggers in our community are producing some of the funniest writing out there.
- Opinion/Editorial: Share your most well-reasoned advocacy about issues you care about. Change hearts, minds and lives.
- Life: Share your essays about everyday life that reveal your unique voice and the strength of the human spirit.
- Geeky/Nerdy: Tell us about your passions, from the most technical to the most artisanal. How has social media and technology changed the way you immerse yourself in everything from code to cooking?
- Design: A completely new category. If you've designed a site, blog masthead, graphic that you're proud of, for yourself or another blogger, share that design and your inspirations.

2. Nominate a blog post here
All nominations are public. You can find the entries listed here. Anyone in the community can nominate a blogger. Or two. Or three. ☺ Yes, you may nominate yourself! Nominations are open now; you have until April 15th to nominate blog posts and designs. NOTE: You must be logged in to nominate your or someone else's work.

3. Curator Committees
All blogs submitted will be reviewed by a committee, led, once again by the incredible Eden Kennedy of Fussy.org. This year's committee will work in two phases:

Phase I: Committee selects 100 great pieces of writing and design
-Our "Pay-it-Forward" Committee is comprised of ten wonderful bloggers who have read at past Community Keynotes. The two committee members per category will narrow submissions down to the 20 finalists per Voices category:

Curators:
Humor: Deb Rox and Danielle Henderson
Opinion/Editorial: Liz Gumbinner and Tanis Miller
Life: Grace Davis and Mike Adamick
Geeky/Nerdy: Stephanie Bergman and JD from I Do Things
Design: Laurie White and Karen Walrond

Phase II: Select 15 presenters for BlogHer ‘10

-Next, Eden and BlogHer’s Co-founders will work with another panel of experts to select three presenters per category, who will share their work live and in person at the BlogHer Voices of the Year event at BlogHer '10. The presenters must be registered attendees of BlogHer '10. This panel includes:

Heather and Jessica (creators of Go Fug Yourself)
Stacy Morrison (editor-in-chief of Redbook Magazine)
Annalee Newitz (Journalist and IO9 founder)
Katie Orenstein (Founder of The Op-Ed Project)
Lizz Winstead (Comedian and co-creator of The Daily Show)

4. Timeline:

-The Voices of the Year submission period is open now!
-The submission period will close one month from now, on April 15th.
-The 100 finalists will be unveiled on July 1st.
-UPDATE: We got so many submissions we needed to extend the Phase 1 judging period. We're running about 2 weeks behind and plan to unveil the Finalists and readers on July 19th!!
-The 15 readers, who must be registered BlogHer '10 attendees, will present their work on August 6th.
-The rest of us will talk about how talented all of the above folks are for the next 12 months!

So, start mining your archives. Start finding that link you bookmarked a few weeks ago because you never read something so awesome. We invite you to support the writers and designers who make you laugh, cry and learn, so start sharing those links and your stories here. We can't wait to shine a spotlight on all of the BlogHer Voices of the Year in 2010!

Happy reading,

Elisa
on behalf of Elisa, Jory and Lisa, BlogHer Co-founders 

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com
My BlogHer profile truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!