The winners will be crowned at two separate events in Johannesburg and Cape Town on Thursday 17 March…which is next week, so mark your diary now.

Johannesburg event: Joblog will be controlling things at Cool Runnings in Melville. Venue details and a map can be found here.

Cape Town event: Will be at Obz Cafe, Lower Main road, Observatory. It’s on the strip…over the road from Stones.

Things will get going at 7pm at both venues.

Please join us for a quiet glass of bubbly and this years awards, we want to see as many SA bloggers and blog-readers as possible….so let your people know.

Find out at the 1st South African blog awards ceremonies to be held on Thursday 17th March at glittering red carpet events in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Mark your diaries now.

All the tears, all the winners in 13 different catagories…venues to be announced shortly.

The voting procedure:

These blogs are competing for line honours in 13 different categories with only the top 10 nominated blogs in each category appearing here.

Please feel free to check out each one of the blogs competing by clicking on the different blog titles. The link will transport you over to the blog which will let you explore, enjoy and evaluate.

At the bottom of the list you’ll find a button inviting you to cast your vote. Click through to the ‘Vote caster’ and make your mark next to the one blog in each category which you should win. There are 13 categories, the choice is yours to either vote in just 1 or….all 13 categories .

The system will only allow you to vote once a day.

Voting will close Friday the 4th of March.

The winners will be announced at prize givings held in Cape Town and Johannesburg (at still to be announced venues and dates) and later on this site.

So…go get yourself a steaming cup o’ Java, make yourself comfortable and check out South Africa’s best independent media titles.

(more…)

Find out in the 1st South African blog awards.

Nominations are now closed. Over 180 nominating mails have been received for this year’s awards. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in their favourites.

The mails will now be manually processed…and the final voters roll setup. Voting will open on Monday 21 February until Friday 4 March 2005.

In this year’s awards, a "weblog" is a page with dated entries. The contest is open to any weblogs that are written by South Africans living in SA or abroad. The blogs must have existed for a period of time during the year 2004, so weblogs that were discontinued during 2004 are also eligible.

Blogs can compete for the top honours in the following catagories:


Best overall South African blog - The best of the best from SA

Best post on a South African blog - The one post which took game for 2004

Best overseas South African blog - Written by a South African in any foreign country

Best writing of a South African blog - Humour, attention to detail…captivating

Best SA political blog - The best SA blog featuring mainly a political theme.

Best SA photographic blog - The best SA blog featuring original photographic content.

Best new blog - Best blog which was started during the year of 2004

Best SA food blog - The best blog written mainly about food or drink

Best SA sports blog - Best blog covering some type of sporting subject.

Best SA Tech blog - Best South African technology focussed weblog

Best SA Environmental blog - Best tree hugging, love nature-type vibe blog

Best SA lifestyle blog - Best blog of lifestyle type content

Best design for a blog - Best overall design and layout of a weblog page.

Nomination rules:

Only one nomination form may be submitted per person. E-mail addresses are required for this reason, and you must use your own address. If you resubmit a ballot, your old one will be erased.

In the nomination phase: URLs are required. The maximum number of weblogs you may nominate for a category is three for most categories and four for Best overall South African blog. You may nominate your own weblog, but the total nominations for your own weblog must be less than one third of your total (legitimate) nominations. There is no limit to the number of categories a weblog may be nominated for.
Nominees have to fit the category they are placed in.

Only the top ten nominated blogs for each catagory will go through to the final voting stage.

Nominations are now officially open and will close Friday 11 February. Please send your nominations to:

sablogawards@gmail.com

These rules may change at any time, but they probably won’t.

What about prizes?

Apart from the honour of being the best, the winner of the Best overall South African blog will win a purse of 2005 South African cents (R20.05).

Also, contributors can donate their own prizes to the category of their choice, and if the contributor has a site, it will be linked from this page. If the contributor is going to awards ceremony, he/she can also have the privilege of announcing/presenting the category sponsored at the ceremony. To donate one, the contributor can bring it to event, mail it to the winner, or send an online gift certificate or cash to the winner. Prizes that are more creative than the R20.05 are encouraged.

Send an e-mail to get your prize added. Sorry, "to be announced" prizes to reserve categories won’t be accepted. I’ll send out a list of winner’s e-mails to the contributors after they’re announced, but all other prize arrangements will be handled by their respective donators.

Let the nominating begin…