What are the best blogs in the world? Nominations are open.

As I return from vacation to the horror of Hurricane Katrina and the surprise of two openings on the United States Supreme Court, I am particularly glad to focus on The BOBs -- The Best of the Blogs Awards, hosted by Deutsche Welle International. I've accepted an invitation to join the jury of journalists judging this competition. Our job is to select a baker's dozen of the world's best current-events blogs in the following categories:

Best Weblog

Best Multimedia Blog

Best Podcasting Site

Special Award from Reporters Without Borders: This category is for Weblogs that take a strong stance for freedom of information all over the world.

Best Journalistic Blog: The best blogs written in nine languages will receive this award. The languages for 2005 are: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Note: The BOBs site defines "journalistic" blogs as Weblogs that are not necessarily written by professional journalists but "make use of the journalistic attributes of analysis and commentary on contemporary issues (politics, culture, business, sports) and other hot-button topics."

You may ask, who are we to say who's best? That's exactly what I wondered when I was invited to join the other jurors. As you'll see, they're an impressive bunch of journalist-types. Unlike many of the other jurors, I blog in only one language. Unlike all of them, I'm American. And female.

Despite our differences, I'm going to make an assumption that we share one thing in common: A belief that our ability to identify the best blogs depends upon you. In other words, I'm asking for your help -- help us make sure we see the best of the best. The BOBs are soliciting nominees for each of the categories outlined above. Please, nominate a blog that deserves one of these awards -- whether it's yours or someone else's. Complete this suggestion form by the end of the month, and your nomination goes into the hopper and onto the official Web site. As Julien Pain of Reporters Without Borders wrote at the end of his intro "Blog for Freedom" in the jurors blog, "I look forward to discovering new blogs, new people and new ideas through these Bobs."

The public nomination process is the big reason I'm interested in these awards. At a time when international events demand and deserve authentic, independent writing, reporting and insight about current events, bloggers around the world are chipping away at rhetoric to deliver the real thing. Take Katrina -- you want commentary about real people and news of how failed policy affects everyday lives? These blogs have it.

So if there's a deserving blog out there and we don't know about it, it won't be for lack of asking. Tell us -- We've been given until Sept. 30 to recruit blog nominations for these awards.

Thanks.

Comments

[Joy Des Jardins]

The BOBs? They actually DO have awards for blogging? My second post was about the "Bloggies." (Like the Emmys. the Tonys or Oscars) I was running on adrenaline from just starting my blog and this kind of stuff was running through my head in the middle of the night. I got up and wrote the post because I couldn't sleep...it was meant to be silly, of course. Now you tell me there are the BOBs....crazy! Thanks Lisa.

[Sour Duck]

Congrats on being asked to be on the jury.

The BOBs also have an RSS feed you can subscribe to, so you can see nominations as they occur, which is kind of fun:

http://www.thebobs.de/rss.php

[Lisa Stone]

Sour Duck, thank you for adding that link. Eager to see your recommendations! Best, L

[jenB]

wow, you are the only woman on the jury.

and thanks, no i can use my entire afternoon checking out blogs new to me.
:-) or i could uh, vacuum or something.

[Lisa Stone]

Jen, my friend, when the revolution comes, I will be found typing to you beneath the dustbunnies. And the dog hair. And the Legos. . .