Polls open
April 2, 2012
Internet users around the world can vote for their favorite candidates in this year's blog awards. Polling starts on April 2 and ends May 2. A total of 187 innovative and top-quality websites have been selected from more than 3,200 submissions and are up for voting in 17 categories.
To give Internet users a clear picture of what's happening around the Internet in other parts of the world, all the nominees for the BOBs' six top prizes have been translated into all 11 of the contest's languages.
Creative, brave bloggers
From the English-speaking world, the sites Afrinnovator, a news site focusing on technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, and the Khan Academy, which offers video lessons for primary and secondary school students around the world, are up for awards.
Other sites in the running include an interactive map of handicapped-accessible places, a blog by an 18-year-old Brazilian reporting on life in Rio's slums, and a site that aims to fight sexual harassment in Egypt.
Help choose the winners
An online vote will determine the winner of User Prizes in all 17 categories. You can help select the winner for these categories by registrating via Twitter, Facebook or OpenID as well as the Russian network VKontakte or the popular Chinese micro-blogging service Sina Weibo.
An independent panel of bloggers and media experts will meet on May 1 in Berlin to decide on the winners of the Jury Awards handed out in the six multilingual categories. These main categories highlight the best of the best in the areas of blogging, social activism campaigns, video formats and innovative cultural and educational projects. All of the six main categories are multilingual; in other words, candidates from eleven languages will be competing for the jury awards.
All the BOBS 2012 winners will be announced online on May 2 at thebobs.com. The jury award winners will also be invited to an award ceremony in Bonn, Germany, as part of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in June.
Author: Gabriel Gonzalez / sms
Editor: Kristin Zeier