Retrospection ... now the Irish Blog Awards are over

The Irish Blog Awards are over. The DJ has packed up, party outfits have been returned to the hire shops and wardrobes, and room has been made on mantelpieces for the silverware.
The annual period of introspection within the Irish blogosphere can now subside, allowing the wounds of being overlooked to heal, and the width of topics in posts to return.

The BBC were vexed at being overlooked for RTS awards recently. An internal email that was quickly leaked to the press explained that Sky News decide

“... in advance that some hours are to be ‘RTS hours’ — and they throw everything at them ...” (Times Online)

transmitting higher-quality-than-normal packages and segments that intentionally broadcast material that can later be nominated for industry awards. The more conventional approach is just to wait for a major story to break and then react naturally with flair and instinctive insight. But Sky don’t seem to leave anything to chance.

So where am I going with this post? There are a couple of questions for which I haven’t yet found an answer:

• Did any of this year’s winners post material specifically aimed at getting shortlisted for the prestigious Irish Blog Awards? (Other than ego, not sure what the driver would have been!)
• How many of last years 2006 shortlisted blogs (and eventual category winners) are still alive?
• How can we help Damien devise a fair and pragmatic means of organising next year's awards. We’ve learnt this year that the open longlisting process delivered an overwhelming list of potential category winners. And the longlist voting favours blogs with large audiences and voting campaigns. Only the final judging is based on merit. No reason to why the current approach won’t be worse next year!
• The spread of blogs winning awards seems pretty small. Maybe the best ones just stand head and shoulders above the rest. But I’m curious why I only read/listen to one of the award winners. And Red Mum seems the closest to a winner with any northern connection! But it’s a big island, so we’ll have to try harder next year!

Anyway, AiB is happy to have been longlisted in two categories, intrigued by the continued linking to this blog from BBC Two, and surprised by the addition to the Will and Testament blog roll.

And I can assure you that I’ll not be running any “RTS hours” to pander to next year’s voters ... if AiB is still around!