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Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 Online Voting Round 1 Now Open

After two weeks and over 43,000 nominations the Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 online voting round 1 is now open.

Looking at the names that have been nominated, there’s a good mix of new and underrated companies and applications as well as the usual suspects. For example, it’s nice to see the likes of Kiva in the non-profit category after a year when the micro-lending company really came into the online consciousness.

The first round of online voting for the Mashable awards will run from 9am PST today until 11.59pm PST on Sunday November 30. Once this initial round of votes are in, the final round of voting will begin on Wednesday December 3, with the winners announced on Tuesday December 16.

You can begin casting your vote via the round 1 voting form below.

Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 Preparing for Winners

With over 35,000 nominations already, the 2008 Mashable Open Web Awards are already bypassing the votes from the inaugural awards last year. With only two days to go until the nomination process closes and the voting proper begins, the nominees are taking shape.

With 26 categories this year, there are more chances than ever that the smaller names and players can be recognized. This is the beauty of the Mashable awards – everyone has a chance.

If you haven’t voted yet, the timeline is drawing near for your final nomination:

11.59pm PST on Sunday November 16.
02.59am EST on Monday November 17.
07.59am GMT on Monday November 17.

Once the nomination phase closes, the votes will be tallied and the finalists announced for the first round of voting. If you haven’t nominated your favourite web application, blog or tool, now is the time to do so. You can use the voting form here.

(Of course, if you wish to vote for me, all votes are kindly accepted via the preset voting widget in the sidebar). 😉

Full details of the nominees moving forward into the finalist stages will be announced Tuesday November 18, with voting starting the following day.

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Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 Open for Nominations

Mashable has opened up the Nominations for this year’s Open Web Awards. The awards recognize the leading innovations in social networking, with both applications and companies in the mix. The timescale of the nominations, online voting and winner announcements have also been released:

The categories for this year’s awards are as follows:

1. Mainstream and Large Scale Social Networks
2. Embeddable Widgets
3. Blog Plugins
4. Social News
5. Social Networking Applications
6. Social Bookmarking
7. Search And Social Search
8. Sports and Fitness
9. Photo Sharing
10. Video Sharing
11. Start Pages
12. Places and Events
13. Travel
14. Music
15. Social Shopping
16. Fashion
17. Celebrity and Gossip
18. Mobile Applications
19. Dating and Romance
20. Wiki
21. Politics
22. How-To
23. Environmental
24. Non-Profit Causes
25. Online Games
26. Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks

You can vote nominate your company, application or preferred nominee using the Mashable voting form below:

The Mashable Open Web Awards 2008

As the largest blog focused exclusively on social networks, Mashable has the envious position of a captive audience that listens to and respects them. Five million page views each month would suggest online users agree. Therefore, their annual Open Web Awards are much sought after and awarded to only the most deserving recipients.

Recognizing the major innovations in web technology, there are 26 categories overall. These include mainstream and large scale social networks, blog plug ins, wiki and many more. Now it’s almost time for the 2008 awards.

Nominations for the categories will begin on November 5 and remain open until November 18 2008. At that point, the first voting rounds will begin a day later on November 19, and last until December 15. The votes will then be tallied by polling partner Polldaddy with the results announced shortly thereafter.

The Open Web Awards 2007 received over a quarter of a million votes, and with double the amount of blog partners this year – 100 as opposed to last year’s 50 – it looks as if that figure will be topped with this year’s awards.

The nominations will be made public on Wednesday November 5. As an official blog partner for the awards, I’ll be bringing you all the latest news as it’s announced – from nominations, to People’s Choice Awards and more. It promises to be a great end to the year for the social network arena – I hope you stop by for the news as it happens, or check out the main Open Web Awards site itself.

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Interview on Comet Branding Radio and Other News

One of the great things about social media is the people you meet and connect with. From curious newcomers to social media experts and everyone in between, it’s truly a medium for everyone to connect and discuss. Next week I’ll be involved in the discussion side of things when I talk about the social media press release on Comet Branding Radio.

One of the foremost branding and communications firms in North America, Comet Branding combines traditional branding and marketing with social media and all that has to offer. Their radio show has included the likes of Brian Solis, Jennifer Leggio and others and looks at how to build brands using traditional PR, social media, eco-friendly approaches and more.

The founder of Comet Branding, Al Krueger, kindly offered an invitation to discuss the social media press release. I’ll be appearing with Jason Kintzler, founder of Pitch Engine; Todd Defren, Principal of Shift Communications; and Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot. It looks set to be an interesting discussion – I hope you can join us.

In other “special appearance” news, myself and fellow social media advocate Susan Murphy recently collaborated on a guest post at the blog of author and Emmy award-winning former CBS corespondent David Henderson. This came about after our responses to one of David’s posts on social media and its perceived non-effectiveness in business use. It was an enjoyable partnership and my thanks to David for extending the invite – you can read the guest post here.

Finally, I just received confirmation that I will be a blog partner for this years’s Open Web Awards, or Webby’s. Run by the good folks over at Mashable, the Webby’s recognize the major innovations in web technology. There are 26 categories, and nominations run between November 5 to November 18 2008. The actual voting will take place between November 19 and December 15 – make sure you stop by.

I’d like to thank everyone for inviting me to take part in these events and discussions, and I’m looking forward to hearing and sharing the views of some of my peers and contemporaries.

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