Any major shift in communication technology goes through these stages:
- Experimentation
- Early narrow implementation
- Establishment of community
- Enhancement of solidarity in face of establishment backlash
- Giving awards to ourselves
Gosh, is it time for step five again?
Yep. The Canadian Blog Awards have opened nominations for 2005, celebrating the Canadian blogospheriverse’s capacity for creating provocative, insightful commentary and engaging, ground-breaking citizen journalism. (Or, failing that, our ability to game the system, rig the vote and make off with a boatload of ill-gotten virtual booty.)
You can nominate any Canadian blog you like (including blogs by expats living abroad and visitors living in Canada). Modesty forbids one from suggesting that one nominate one’s blog… but you know, if you felt so inclined…
Meanwhile, beyond shameless self-promotion (suggested categories: humour, personal, “liberal”, best blog by a practising metrosexual), there’s a little something in all of this for folks who just want to find a few more good blogs to read: the list of nominations. If you’ve been looking to expand your daily intake of bloggy goodness, it’s a terrific starting point.
Given that the nomination categories include religion blogs, why was science left off the list? Science blogging is arguably the most valuable of all blogs, given that so many scientists are now allowing the world to follow the entire scientific process, warts and all, through the musings of individual researchers. Unlike most political blogs, which usually constitute ill-informed screeds, science blogs actually play a role in advancing the evolution of ideas.
My blog, by the way, is not a science blog — so I’m not angling for a nomination.