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Less than a month ago we were thrilled to announce and open submissions for the evolution of the community keynote: The BlogHer 2010 Voices of the Year.
One of the things we were excited about was to introduce a public submission process. We thought it was the best of both worlds: You could submit your work (or the work of someone you admire) so everyone could appreciate it, but we weren't asking people to vote or ask for votes, so audience size or number of followers or fans was not going to determine selections. Our thinking: Why not shine a spotlight on more of your work than just the folks who end up reading at the conference?
In years past, when the submission process was by email, we received hundreds of submissions...most of them from people submitting their own work, those posts that made them really proud. While we've received hundreds of submissions again, we also got a lot of backchannel (and sometimes not-so-backchannel) feedback. Not everyone felt comfortable submitting their own work publicly. So, either they were hoping their readers might. Or they weren't submitting at all.
Much as we still love the idea of proudly submitting work for people to read or view and love and maybe even comment on, we don't want someone's work to go unsung because the process makes them feel uncomfortable.
So, here's our solution:
We're extending submissions for one week, until Thursday April 22nd.
And for that week, you can still submit your work (or the work of someone you admire) publicly, via the existing submission here.
Or you can submit via a private submissions here.
When the submission period is over, we will combine category submissions form both sources and provide each category's submissions to the Phase 1 committee (named in the original Voices of the Year announcement). We will not distinguish between submissions made publicly vs. privately to committee members.
We hope this will encourage more writers and designers to submit their work, their words, their images, their designs, their thoughts, their opinions, their blogs to be part of the Voices of the Year.
A couple more Frequently Asked Questions from the feedback we've been getting:
Question: Do you have to be a registered attendee of BlogHer '10 to submit your work?
Answer: No. Our Phase 1 committee will narrow down all submissions to 20 finalists per category, and those finalists do not all have to be registered attendees to be recognized. However, when Eden Kennedy, the BlogHer founders and our Phase 2 Committee narrow those 20 finalists down to 3 readers per category, the readers do need to be registered attendees of the conference.
Question: What will Design "readers" read?
Answer: We're asking for submissions of any web element for a blog...a logo, a masthead, an overall blog design. The 3 designers who present their work at the conference will be able to show images, talk about the goals they were trying (or asked) to achieve, and their inspirations when delivering on those goals. It will be an opportunity for us all (especially the visually-challenged word-oriented folks like me) to get a little peek into the imaginations of some of the many wonderful designers in our community, many of whom learned on the blog!
Question: Can you explain the Geeky/Nerdy category again?
Answer: I'm happy to try. The original description was "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? " What we think that means: Let's honor our bloggy navel-gazing, whatever the subject that you like to geek out on. Whether you've made the case for composting, explained why you've chosen Gowalla over Foursquare (or vice versa), shared your brilliance on Twitter's monetization plans, talked about how to use social media to promote your music career or, like me, want to discuss every little detail of the runway designs on Project Runway, you may have revealed your true geek colors. As the Urban Dictionary puts it: "Someone who spends a lot of time and energy in a certain area...not necessarily computers or technology." (And yes, perhaps I like that particular definition because they use "theatre geek" as the example...what of it?!)
I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have, just leave them in the comments.
And for the next week, just like I said four weeks ago: Bring it!
And:
