And the general public on the blogosphere in South Africa at the moment is mainly white, urban middle class. Seth caters perfectly to his audience – blogging 101.

Do I think it is the Best Blog in South Africa, hell no!

But this is a popular vote competition, like Idols and the more support one can drum up, the better your chances of winning.

I also wouldn’t like the judges to have a bigger say either, unless we had a panel of international judges who had no agendas or investment in the local blogs.

So, we must just sit tight and let Seth enjoy his moment of glory.

The great thing about social media is that it is self-correcting – over time.

As broadband becomes more affordable, more players will run onto the field and the play will change.

Say the journalism community started a national award for the best South African newspaper. If it was judged like the blog awards, then the Daily Sun would probably win it hands down. Just think of it: the Daily Sun would be the shining example of the best newspaper in South Africa.

The added problem of having an award like this in a medium where only about 10% of the population is online is that votes for a national award are being cast solely by a highly elite market segment, meaning that the winners will necessarily come from that same demographic.

If we want the Blog Awards to mean anything, we need to accommodate for this crazy feature of South African society. And no, SaulK, we can’t simply ‘Blame the late communications minister for this faulting’ (i.e. the ‘white guy club’). We are better than that. More innovative, I’m sure of it

Not only were a relatively small group of blogs nominated (some several times) but all the nominees (and winners/runners up) in the best African Language blog were Afrikaans-language blogs.

Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s great that the Afrikaans blogosphere is thriving. It’s a great way for a language community to stake out a small part of the Internet.

But where are the other African-language blogs? Is it really possible that nobody is blogging in isiZulu? Or Sesotho? Or isiXhosa? Really?
Or could it be that none were nominated becuase the (relatively) small community who participated in the nomination/voting process only speak English and Afrikaans and there was a language barrier? And if this is the case, what does that say about the demographics of the people participating?

As you can see, I have no answers. But I think we should probably ask these questions of an award that claims to be representative of South African bloggers.

“If the blog awards brand doesn’t have any meaning, any vision, any unique take on the world of blogging, then I guess it will be just another popularity contest – which is fine – but just not what I hoped for SA.”

I definitely agree with this sober view. If blogging is not about sharing views about pertinent issues that have relevance to society at large then it has absolutely no value. The fact that certain blogs attract “clicks” does not make them valuable, important or even good. Otherwise the Daily Sun would be rated the best newspaper in the land. I believe we are indeed missing an opportunity if we will reduce this wonderful technological innovation (blogging) to a mere mindless tool for cyber-addicts seeking escapism instead of tackling pertinent issues.

“If the blog awards brand doesn’t have any meaning, any vision, any unique take on the world of blogging, then I guess it will be just another popularity contest – which is fine – but just not what I hoped for SA.”

I definitely agree with this sober view. If blogging is not about sharing views about pertinent issues that have relevance to society at large then it has absolutely no value. The fact that certain blogs attract “clicks” does not make them valuable, important or even good. Otherwise the Daily Sun would be rated the best newspaper in the land. I believe we are indeed missing an opportunity if we will reduce this wonderful technological innovation (blogging) to a mere mindless tool for cyber-addicts seeking escapism instead or tackling pertinent issues.