Proposed Changes to the Ninjamatics' Canadian Weblog Awards Category List

For this coming 2012 Ninjamatics' Canadian Weblog Awards season, I am planning on making a few changes to the the categories.

As these Awards grow up and the world of weblogs goes through its own shifts and changes, the categories need a little fine tuning. Some categories in the the 2011 season's categories have proven to be a poor fit for some weblogs, some categories will do better being incorporated into others, and some may or may not need to be in the list at all.

I have come up with a proposed 2012 category list that removes the Microblog category, as microblogging platforms such as Twitter are quite a different animal from weblogs, and they aren't a good fit here. I have combined Business & Career with Military, Arts & Culture with Music, and Gardening with Nature. A new category I am proposing as part of an answer to this question is Disability, although that specific title is tentative.

Here is the proposed Ninjamatics' 2012 Canadian Weblog Awards category list:

Art & Photography / Art et photographie
Arts & Culture / Arts et culture
Best Designed / Meilleur design
Best New Weblog / Meilleur nouveau blogue
Best Written / Meilleurs textes
Business & Career / Affaires et carrières
Comics / Bande dessinée
Crafting / Artisanat
Disability (or Special Needs, maybe?)
Ecology & Social Justice / Écologie et justice sociale
Education / Education
Ex-Pat / Expatriés
Family & Parenting / Famille et enfants
Fashion, Style & Design / Mode, style et design
Feminist / Féminisme
Food & Drink / Cuisine et breuvages
French Language / En français
Group Weblog / Blogue collectif
Health & Wellness / Santé et bien-être
Humour / Humour
LGBTQ / GLBTQ
Life / Mode de vie
Lifetime Achievement / Prix d'excellence pour l'ensemble de son œuvre
Media & Journalism / Médias et journalisme
Nature and Gardening / Nature et Jardinage
Placeblog / Placeblogue
Podcast & Vlog / Podcast et vlog
Political / Politique
Pop Culture & Entertainment / Pop culture et spectacles
Religion, Spirituality & Philosophy / Religion, spiritualité et philosophie
Science, Technology & the Internet / Science, technologie et Internet
Sports, Fitness & Recreation / Sports, condition physique et loisirs
Travel / Voyage
Writing & Literature / Écriture et littérature

What are your thoughts on this list? Are there categories that you think can be added, subtracted, or combined? Do you have any thoughts about the category titles? What should the title be for the Disability category?

A Discussion of the Health & Wellness Category and the Bias Against Disability

I received an interesting comment following our announcement of the Ninjamatics' 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees shortlist, and I think it deserves to be addressed in its own entry. Here is the comment in question:

I wasn't going to say anything but I wonder if there is a strong anti-disabled sentiment amongst the judges, none of the leading disabled bloggers, who were nominated, made it to the finals. Health and wellness, which is supposed to include those with physical disabilities - didn't. Ecology and social justice completely shut out disabled bloggers. They selected a blogger who hasn't blogged for months and excluded disabled bloggers who seriously try to make change every day. I see bias here. The disabled community is familiar with having our voices silenced. I guess maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I call bias.

     – Janet

When I created the Ninjamatics' Canadian Weblog Awards, I spent a lot of time crafting categories that would be inclusive rather than exclusive. I wanted to see both arts and business represented. I wanted to welcome newer bloggers into the fold. I insisted on both LGBT and Feminist categories to represent segments of the population that are often ignored, and when I created the Health & Wellness category, I made it clear that it was a section that welcomed not only blogs about health care work and healthy living but also by those with mental and/or physical disabilities.

The reason I made sure that was clear is because, although I myself am not differently abled, I have an older brother who is, and I've seen firsthand the social and political erasure that takes place. Over the two seasons during which the Awards have been active, there have been a large number of weblogs by disabled bloggers nominated, and that's something I've been really happy to see. Before these awards, I didn't know that there was such a strong community of disabled bloggers out there, and I have been so proud to host links to it that might help to garner it some attention.

Because of my personal interest in the category, I want to see weblogs by disabled bloggers rise to the top of the Health & Wellness category, too, and to further inclusiveness within the Awards, I specifically set up the jury process so that bias could not play out as a major factor in any category throughout the first round of judging. All 461 nominated weblogs were randomly distributed across 46 jurors arranged in approximately 15 groups comprised of three or four jurors each without mention of category distinction. Each weblog was read specifically for its ability to meet the ten criteria used, which includes a score based on usability and accessibility specifically to keep an eye to inclusiveness as a factor in quality.

The first round is contructed in this way — with a large number of jurors and no category distinctions given to further bias the jurors — so that the feminist, LGBTQ, political, disabled, etc. bloggers will have the greatest opportunity to be judged by the greatest number of judges ranging the greatest number of interests without emphasis being placed upon possibly bias-creating category distinctions. A good blog is a good blog when held up against the ten criteria, regardless of its category distinction. To further that cause, I also specifically instructed the jurors to score the weblogs based on the ten criteria alone and not on whether they themselves would be interested in reading the weblog again in the future.

I am definitely not saying that our jurors aren't prone to particular kinds of bias. I am saying that they are, because they're human, which is why the first round of judging is specifically designed as an attempt to remove the effect of that bias on the Awards results. Good weblogs can be lauded because they are good weblogs and not lose out because of an individual juror's bias.

I know that the disabled community is familiar with having their voices silenced, and I do all I can both to have disabled bloggers represented within the Ninjamatics' Canadian Weblog Awards and to keep bias against them out of the jury process.

Since receiving Janet's comment, though, I have spent more time thinking through the Awards' process and categories, as I'm sure you have while reading through this entry, and I am opening up the comments to your thoughts and suggestions. For instance, would it be better to have a category specific to disabilities outside Health & Wellness?

Thank you so much for bringing this up, Janet! I think this has the potential to be a really good discussion.

Today's Category Feature: Best New Weblog

Today, the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards category we're featuring is Best New Weblog, which has 26 nominees thus far.

To be eligible for nomination in the Best New Weblog category, a weblog must have been created after July 31, 2010, so the following weblogs are but babes in the woods. Give them a visit!

Advertising and Marketing Small to Medium Business
Breast for the Weary
CoolScience
Figareau, cuisine évolutive
Gracie's Mum: A Story of a Mum with MS
The Hydrant
Images of Learning Project
Jennifer Villamere
Kids In Cowtown
Labeled.ca
Life, On Full
Little Bits of Crazy
Momicon
Mother Miser
The Olive Seed
Our Pink Thoughts
Pawsh Magazine
Postcard of the Day
Reactive Candy
Real Creative Eats
Sabrina's Pug Tails
Spreading Awesome
Tales from the Bib
Teacher Talk
Teaching By the Book
The Young Gents Club

If you know of any other fantastic new Canadian weblogs, nominate them in the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards to celebrate their good blogging.

Today's Category Feature: Best Designed Weblog

Today, the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards category we're featuring is Best Designed Weblog, which has 13 nominees thus far.

As much as beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, good weblog design also requires usability and accessibility, functionality, and interactivity, and it takes a thoughtful blogger and a keen designer to build a beautiful yet practical website. All weblogs in the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards are held up to a set of ten criteria by which a jury will judge them, and the weblogs in this category have a tall order to fill.

Nominations are open until October 31st, so, in the meantime, drop in and let our growing list of nominees know you were by:

Before You Invest
CMS Critic
Everybody Likes Sandwiches
Figareau, cuisine évolutive
Guilty Kitchen
Hindsvik Blog
iCCOUNTING.ca
Jessica Reingold's Countless Calories
The Movie Blog
No Ordinary Rollercoaster
Rants n' Rascals
Sinistre Blogzine
Webstravaganza

If you know of any well-designed Canadian weblogs, nominate them in the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards!

Today's Category Feature: Arts & Culture

Today's featured 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards category is Arts & Culture, which has 13 nominees thus far.

Take a tour, steep yourself in arts and culture, and leave them comments to let them know you came to visit:

Alice in Paris Loves Art and Tea
The Art Monitor
Les Bachelières
Couchtime
East Coast By Choice
Feathers, Freesias & Fishing Tackle
Montreal State of Mind
Postcard of the Day
The Simply Sophisticated Events Blog
Sinistre Blogzine
A Stranger a Day
URBMN
The WildWorks Station

Do you know of any other fantastic Canadian weblogs about arts and culture? Nominate them in the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards!

Today's Category Feature: Art & Photography

It's time to start featuring the individual categories in the Canadian Weblog Awards now that we have upwards of 215 nominees in the awards. We're proud of our nominees, and we want to show them off!

Today, we're featuring Art & Photography, which is 17 nominees strong and growing.

Check out the nominees below and leave them comments to let them know you dropped by!

Alice in Paris Loves Art and Tea
The Art Monitor
The Art of Baking
Belle Meinerz Photography
COFT Design
The Corner Blog
Guilty Kitchen
Inspired By Gladys
Postcard of the Day
The Random Adventures of the Rambling Artist
Short and Sweet
Simple Bites
Snout Scout
A Stranger a Day
The Urban Momtographer
Wander Further
Watawa Life

If you know of any other excellent Canadian weblogs about art and photography, why not give them a nod and nominate them in the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards?

The Canadian Weblog Awards Have Added A New Category

The 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards has a new category!

I was entering new nominations and announcing them on twitter last night when @dougpete asked me why there was no Education category. Hmmm. Good question.

Although my internet wanderings take me through a lot of weblog genres on a daily basis, I admit that I was unfamiliar with weblogs dedicated to Education. I'd like to thank Doug for bringing them to my attention, because the Canadian Weblog Awards are now one category larger.

If you know of any excellent Education weblogs, nominate them in our newly minted Best Weblog About Education category!