Nominees of the Day: Placeblog

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day come from our most recent addition to the awards, the Placeblog category.

I have been blogging for almost seven years, but the term "placeblogging" was a new one to me, so when it was suggested that we needed a Placeblog category, I looked into it. I can't say for sure, but the term appears to date back to 2007, and it perfectly filled a growing hole in the Canadian Weblog Awards. This definition explains it well:

A placeblog is an act of sustained attention to a particular place over time
It can be done by one person, a defined group of people, or in a way that’s open to community contribution
It’s not a newspaper, though it may contain random acts of journalism
It’s about the lived experience of a place

Check out our Placeblog nominees blogging from Annapolis Royal, Ottawa, Northumberland County, and Yellowknife and leave them comments to say hello:

Annapolis Royal Heritage
Greater Ottawa
NorthumberlandView.ca
Yellowknife Online

If you know of a superb Canadian placeblog, take a moment to show your appreciation and nominate it in the Placeblog category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

The 2010 CWAs Have a New Category! Say Hello to Placeblogging.

A recent nominee, David Reevely of Greater Ottawa, brought to my attention that the Canadian Weblog Awards might be in need of a new category:

Thanks for the heads-up, but I'm afraid I've been nominated in the wrong category -- I don't blog on media and journalism. I guess I'm included there because I'm a full-time journalist, but I see other full-time journalists in other categories, from The Ampersand to Broadsides.

There may be a gap in your categories, actually. I don't see anything for people who blog about neighbourhoods or cities or most public affairs, except for "Political," which is pretty broad.

And he was right. There have been nominations which felt awkward to shoehorn into other categories such as Arts & Culture, Media & Journalism, or Politics, but I wasn't sure exactly what was required.

As more nominations have arrived, though, the picture has become more clear, and David put his finger on it for me later in our conversation when he mentioned placeblogging. What is placeblogging? According to this quote from BlogHer:

A placeblog is an act of sustained attention to a particular place over time
It can be done by one person, a defined group of people, or in a way that’s open to community contribution
It’s not a newspaper, though it may contain random acts of journalism
It’s about the lived experience of a place

A site called Placeblogger defines placeblogging this way:

A placeblog is a blog about the lived experience of a place. What do we mean by "lived experience"? The "lived experience" can be the local political news of a place, the social news of a place, the arts news of a place, etc. So, placeblogs are often about political issues, community news, restaurant reviews, music scenes, architecture, visual arts, etc. Any aspect of life in a place that makes it different from other places, or information that tells you something about the lifestyle of the place.

Placeblogging! Of course! This is exactly what a few of the nominated weblogs are doing, and so the Placeblog category has been created to give them a proper home within the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Thank you, David, for helping me to sort out this little category snag!