Category: best of blogs

March UBHH: Awards & More

Last week’s Uganda Bloggers Happy Hour was, on my part, a bit of a failure. I forgot to print out a sign, I advertised too little and too late, and when I left early (had crack-of-dawn bus ride the next day), I neglected to collect the sign-in sheet with everyone’s blog address on it.

Whoops.

Luckily, the geeky-chic members of the Ugandan blogosphere were all on their game. Carlo showed up with a full-color laminated poster, Colin and Dennis spread the word to Makerere, and some kindly as-yet-to-be-named blogger undoubtedly will have the 27th Comrade snagged the guest list and be is holding it in his or her possession, waiting for me to retrieve it (feel free to let me know who you are…).

Aside from all that, though, this was our best UBHH yet. More than 20 people came, including the heretofore elusive Baz.

Perhaps most importantly, we announced the winners of the 2006 Uganda Best of Blog Awards:

Uganda Blog of the Year: I Have Left Copenhagen for Uganda

Best Writing: Dear Mr. Mccourt (now Once Upon Ish)

Best Design: Living Zack’s Utopia

Best Photography: Locus Amoenus: Gulu, Northern Uganda

Best Post: mataachi inc.: Kim +10

The goal of the 2006 Uganda Best of Blog Awards was to recognize the incredible writing and art in this community, and all of our nominees are certainly emblematic of the talent that exists in the Ugandan blogosphere. Congratulations to the winners! I look forward to seeing everyone continue to express themselves through word, art, design and photography over the next year.

NOTE: If anyone has suggestions on categories or method for the 2007 awards, feel free to e-mail me or to leave them in the comments. Thanks!

in which i say an alternate word for “rooster” 27 times on the radio


Last Tuesday Dennis Muhumuza invited me to guest star on his weekly radio show Writers’ Club on Makerere University’s student-run station, Campus FM 107. We talked about tonight’s Uganda Best of Blogs awards, Uganda Blogger Happy Hour, and the importance of blogging in Uganda. He also convinced me to read a couple of pieces on the air.

I admire Dennis for working to support and publicize the efforts of Ugandan writers, both in and out of the blogosphere. His blog Country Boyi features a series called Blogging a Blogger, and on Writers’ Club he conducts interviews with journalists, students, poets, professors and other literarily-minded people. If you’re in the Kampala area, get your hands on a radio and check it out, every Tuesday, from 7-9 PM.

housekeeping

Check it out: my blogroll (which I always thought sounded more like an Austrian pastry than anything else) had so many links on it that it was getting a little unwieldy. I decided to change things up a bit and use the lovely, fantastic Google Reader to keep tabs on what everyone’s saying.

Instead of huge lists, the sidebar now shows the three most recent posts from five different categories — a better way, I think, of paying attention to the blogs I like. You can still see the lists if you click on the links below each category.

You can also read about the enigmatic jackfruit, if you’re so inclined.

In other news: voting for the 2006 Uganda Best of Blogs is over. We had 287 votes in five categories, with some pretty hotly contested races. Awards will be presented at this month’s Happy Hour: Thursday, March 15, 6:30 PM at Mateo’s.

Uganda Best of Blogs update

Josh at Global Voices just posted a mini-review of the eight blogs nominated for Uganda Blog of the Year, which is excellently written and serves as a neat little guide for those of you who haven’t voted for the Uganda Best of Blogs awards yet (or for those of you who are new to the Ugandan blogosphere and want to check out some of the best examples).

Some people have voiced concerns about the fairness of the voting process — specifically that you can vote once each day, which means that someone with unfettered internet access and the will to win could, theoretically, vote him or herself to the top.

I modelled our system after the South African Blog Awards, which allow voting each day. JKB pointed out that the Canadian Blog Awards do the same thing. So do the Asia Blog Awards, the Business Blog Awards, the Deaf Blog Awards and the Weblog Awards. The way I see it, if you’re dedicated enough to vote every day, then you must be a pretty serious blogger — well done, you.

There are only eleven days left to vote for the 2006 Uganda Best of Blog awards. Have at it.

February UBHH

Last night’s Uganda Bloggers Happy Hour was attended by almost 20 people, both bloggers and the blog-curious. As Dennis says, we were sitting at an L-shaped table, which for some reason inhibited my picture-taking desires, but Pernille has an interesting photo up.

Nominations for the 2006 Uganda Best of Blogs awards are in, the results have been tallied, and the candidates are listed for your voting pleasure. Awards will be presented at the March UBHH, which will be on Thursday, March 15 at 6:30 PM at Mateo’s. My apologies to the few of you who asked for different days/venues — the consensus seems to be that the current time and place works best for most people. If I’m wrong, hit the comments below and let me know.

Thanks to everyone who came last night. It was great to see the returnees and meet those who came for the first time (including the Peace Corps volunteer we attracted with our fetching sign):
Star of Bethlehem
A Crooked Mile
I’ve Left Copenhagen for Uganda
Uganda Scarlett Lion
Kelly
K Spencer
Carlo
Dee
Chantal
Ivan (200 Coin Has Fish)
Dying Communist
Mark & Jan
Dante
Building the Nation