Awarding Web

A few months ago The Huffington Post launched a reader participation contest to choose the "innovators, visionaries, and leaders who are harnessing the power of new media to reshape their fields and change the world."

Now, 1.7 million reader votes later, the original list of 100 "game changers" has been pared down to the "Ultimate 10 Game Changers" -- a dream team, if you will.

The most intriguing of the group -- certainly from the perspective of a blog about "social media for the media pro" -- might be Pete Cashmore (photo), founder of social media web site Mashable, which HuffPost describes as dishing out "digestible bites of tech wisdom that appeal to both nerds and newbies, highlighting not only what's new on Twitter, Facebook, and the social Web, but what to do with it."

Another familiar name to social media types is Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Maybe not as well-known is Bob Bowman, mastermind of Major League Baseball's MLB.TV, which streams almost every ballgame live to subscribers, generating nearly $400 million in revenue last year.

If you're a fan of "dog poop girl," prepare to be disappointed.

Nowhere on The Webby Awards list of Ten Most Influential Internet Moments of the Decade will you find what arguably was the decade's finest example of Internet vigilantism at work. And until the Webbys creates a Decade's Finest Example of Internet Vigilantism at Work category, that's not likely to change.

But The Webbys, which currently is accepting entries for its 14th annual awards, does have an eye for media, money, mobile and social breakthroughs, along with an Internet political milestone or two. All are represented on its list.

"The Internet is the story of decade because it was the catalyst for change in not just every aspect of our everyday lives, but in everything from commerce and communication to politics and pop culture," said David-Michel Davies, the executive director of The Webby Awards. "The recurring theme among all of the milestones on our list is the Internet's capacity to circumvent old systems and put more power into the hands of ordinary people."

Below are the top 10, listed chronologically:

Craigslist expands outside San Francisco (2000)
Google AdWords launches (2000)
Wikipedia launches (2001)
Napster Shut Down (2001)
Google IPO (2004)
Online video revolution (2006)
Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter takes off (2006)
The iPhone debuts (2007)
U.S. Presidential Campaign (2008)
Iranian election protests (2009)

Naturally, any list invites quibbles, and here are mine:

1) Many of these aren't "moments" per se; they're more like processes (Napster, the 2008 presidential campaign, online video revolution).

2) Facebook and Twitter are being crammed into one item, when they're two distinct services.

3) I don't really have a third one, but two items really isn't a list.

Many other Internet moments over the past decade could be considered for such a list, including:

Digg launching in 2004

The 2005 arrest and imprisonment of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, which was partially due to Yahoo cooperating with Chinese investigators.

The rise of user-generated content

I'm sure there are others. Tell us if you noticed any overlooked contenders.

The Online Film Critics Society has announced its 2009 awards schedule.

The first round of voting in 14 categories will begin two days before Christmas and run through Dec. 30, with nominees being announced on New Year's Eve. Final voting will be from Jan. 2-5, with the winners announced on Wednesday, Jan. 6.

The categories are for Best:

Picture
Director
Actor
Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Documentary
Animated Feature
Picture Not in the English Language
Cinematography
Original Score
Editing

Founded in 1997, the OFCS includes more than 130 members from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific Rim region.

The American Society of Business Publication Editors announced the finalists for its Web Site of the Year 2009 Digital Azbee award, to be presented at an awards luncheon during its Digital Symposium at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Nov. 6.

The four finalists are BusinessWeek, CIO, InfoWorld and TechRepublic.

In the Multi-Platform General Excellence category, ASBPE's finalists are Realtor's Step Into the Limelight, Today's Garden Center's Revolutionary 100 Garden Centers Program and Greenhouse Grower's California Pack Trials 2009 Coverage.

In a recent poll of Americans ages 12 through 17, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was voted the well-known entrepreneur most admired from among a list of a half-dozen celebrity/businesspeople.

Youth organization Junior Achievement sponsored the survey of 1,000 U.S. tweens and teens, conducted in August.

Other choices on the list were daytime talk-show legend Oprah Winfrey, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, skateboarder Tony Hawk, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and fashion model Kimora Lee Simmons.

Junior Achievement says the list focused on celebrities who had started business enterprises themselves, as opposed to merely licensing their names and images to someone else's products.

Here's how the votes broke down:

Steve Jobs -- 35%
Oprah -- 25%
Tony Hawk -- 16%
Mark Zuckerberg -- 10%
The Olsen twins -- 7%
Kimora Lee Simmons -- 4%

According to Junior Achievement, 61% of those who selected Jobs did so because he "made a difference in/improved people's lives or made the world a better place." (I wonder how Mary-Kate and Ashley graded out in this category. They did spearhead the Trilby comeback; that should be worth something.) Another 33% chose jobs for his "success in multiple fields." I'm guessing the other 6% who voted for Jobs think he invented the apple.

Still, it's nice that the guy who bestowed upon the iPhone generation its indispensable toys is being given his props. But somehow I think the survey would have come out differently if Ashton Kutcher were on the list.

NPR is clearing some room on its trophy shelf, as it won two awards for its online content.

The Online News Association recognized NPR for its Planet Money, awarding it the Online Journalism Award in the Online Topical Reporting/Blogging, Large Site category.

And NPR's year-long Climate Connections series won a 2009 Communications Award from The National Academies in the "Online/Internet" category for excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering, and medicine to the general public.

The Los Angeles Times…the Miami Herald…My Ballard? The local site covering a neighborhood in Seattle beat out much better-known competition to take home the first-ever Online Journalism Award for community collaboration.

My Ballard is one of five neighborhood news sites in a hyperlocal network in Seattle called Next Door Media, which was founded by Kate Bergman and Cory Bergman, "two longtime local television news executives who are striving to create a new sustainable model of local news," the company said.

The judges said:

My Ballard is exactly what newspapers are trying to do with hyperlocal content. And these guys do it. There was no site that fulfills the sense of community collaboration better. It's the literal definition of the category.

Rolling out yet another great promotional gimmick, The Huffington Post today announced its 20 "Game Changers" in the areas of entertainment and the environment.

The liberal social news, opinion and celebrity coverage site is honoring "100 people in 10 categories who have used new media to reshape their fields and change the world."

These are the first category winners to be announced. Other categories include Politics, Style, Business, Sports, Media, Philanthropy & Service, Health, and Technology.

The 10 Entertainment people chosen were:

Radiohead (British band, digital download pioneers)
Jimmy Fallon (late-night host, web videos, Twitter)
Reed Hastings (Netflix founder)
Ashton Kutcher (never heard of him)
Nikki Finke (DeadlineHollywood)
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (actor, write, co-founders of Funny or Die)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (actor, hitrecord.org founder)
Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island (viral video stars)
Taylor Swift (singer, social media marketing powerhouse)
will.i.am (singer, video maker)

HuffPost will announce more Game Changers in two categories each week for the next four weeks.

Now that's how you milk a promotion! It's textbook, really. Good job, HuffPost. But something's still missing...I know, get the reader involved!

Go to the HuffPost slide shows for the entertainment and green categories to rate the 10 finalists in each category. The top-rated people in each category will be among those announced by HuffPost in November as the Ultimate 10 Game Changers.

As promised earlier this month, Netflix today announced the winner of its $1 million prize for the tech team that could improve the online DVD rental company's customer recommendation system by 10 percent.

From the New York Times:

The winner, formally announced Monday morning, is a seven-person team of statisticians, machine-learning experts and computer engineers from the United States, Austria, Canada and Israel. The multinational team calls itself BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos. The group -- a merger of teams -- was the longtime frontrunner in the contest, and in late June it finally surpassed the 10 percent barrier. Under the rules of the contest, that set off a 30-day period in which other teams could try to beat them.

However, as the Times explains, the results couldn't have been closer. In fact, Netflix had to turn to the fine print to choose a winner:

The BellKor team presented its final submission 20 minutes before the deadline, [Netflix CEO Reed] Hastings said. Then, just before time ran out, [runner-up] The Ensemble made its last entry. The two were a dead tie, mathematically. But under contest rules, when there is a tie, the first team past the post wins.

That's like deciding a Super Bowl on which team came through the tunnel first! (OK, maybe not exactly.) But rules are rules, and BellKor comes away with the big prize in the three-year competition.

Netflix previously announced it was sponsoring another $1 million contest, the details of which were laid out today. It will ask teams to use data sets to model the "taste profiles" of Netflix customers based on demographic information and history of DVD choices.

That's my five-word acceptance speech, should I be fortunate enough to win a Webby Award. You'll have to come up with your own.

But you best get working on it now because the Webby Awards -- created to honor innovation on the Internet -- today kicked off their annual call for entries. As is now a famously famous tradition, winners must restrict their acceptance speeches to five words. The early entry deadline is Oct. 30.

"The Webby Awards give winners - from up-and-coming designers to marketing strategists to acclaimed actors and directors - a chance to shine in a global spotlight," said David-Michel Davies. "We're looking forward to honoring the innovators who are pushing the Internet forward in exciting new directions."

Lucky winners will join past Webby honorees such as comedian and talk-show host Jimmy Fallon ("Thank God Conan got promoted."), online publisher Ariana Huffington ("I didn't kill newspapers, OK?"), Twitter co-founder Biz Stone ("Creativity is a renewable resource.") and World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee ("Free... open... Keep one Web.") in broadcasting their speeches via the Webby Awards YouTube Channel, which has received 1.5 million video views to date.

Webby Awards organizers also announced the debut of three new categories:

Best Green award, honoring sites that "promote green living, business, tools and causes."

Best Use of Social Media (Courtney Love, get that app in now; you're a cinch to win this one)

Best Use of Online Media

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