Webby Awards Announce Nominees 04/13/2010

On Tuesday, the 14th Annual Webby Awards announced finalists for the Internet’s top honors.  The “Oscars of the web,” as CNN International anchor and correspondent Errol Barnett  called the honor in a tweet linking to his segment about the nominees, will be handed out on June 14. The ceremony will mark the end of Internet Week New York 2010.

Internet and pop culture standouts nominated this year include Twitter, foursquare, “The Hangover” star Zach Galifianakis, David After Dentist, Texts from Last Night, Hulu, Mashable, and ColbertNation. According to the Webby Awards, NYTimes.com leads with 15 nominations, followed by BBC with nine nods; and The Onion, Next New Networks and CollegeHumor, each earning six nominations. Beliefnet, for which I monitor and contribute to its community discussion boards, was named one of the nominees in religion and spirituality.

This year, the international award honoring excellence on the Internet launched the Webby People’s Voice Awards. Judges such as Martha Stewart, David Bowie, and Arianna Huffington will pick the winners among the finalists, but fans of these sites can vote for their favorites through April 29. Click here to register and vote: http://webby.aol.com.

“What makes The Webby Awards so much fun is that fans help select the winners, and now that they can vote on our partner networks like AOL and YouTube, we’re expecting more people than ever to participate,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards, in a press release. “Over the next three weeks, we’re going to see who has what it takes to win the battle for Web supremacy.”

Honoring King by helping Haiti 01/15/2010

“Happy birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What are you doing to honor his memory?” was a friend’s Facebook status update I saw earlier this morning.

Today is the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Monday is the official holiday in honor of the slain civil rights leader whose pastorates included Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Text, audio and video of King’s most famous speech.

This year’s observance will mark King’s 81st birthday and the 24th anniversary of the national holiday, which is celebrated in some form in more than 100 countries, according to the King Center  in Atlanta.

“The greatest birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others,” Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006, said in a message posted on the King Center Web site.

Last year, on the eve of his inauguration, President Barack Obama recognized the holiday as a national day of community service, encouraging Americans to serve then and make an ongoing commitment to service. The call for service persists. One of the best ways to honor King’s quest for justice this year is to help earthquake-shattered Haiti.

 On Tuesday, a magnitude 7.0 quake struck 10 miles outside the capital city. The temblor devastated Port-au-Prince with collapsed buildings and people trapped beneath the rubble. The Red Cross estimates 45,000-50,000 died, but an official death toll isn’t available. Full reports of need and damage assessments are also unavailable. A list of aid groups  working on the ground to provide medical care, access to safe water, shelter, energy supplies. Also, guidelines on how to help Haiti are available by visiting the Center for International Disaster Information and more information is available at InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations serving poor and vulnerable people around the world.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, ‘We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’ As we prepare to honor Dr. King by serving on his holiday, let’s take those words to heart, and support the people of Haiti in this time of great need,” Nicola Goren, acting chief executive officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service, said in a message posted online Thursday. The Corporation for National and Community Service is coordinating with the State Department, USAID, FEMA, and other agencies as the United States responds to the crisis.

Right now, the Caribbean nation needs immediate assistance, but the quake also forces a re-evaluation of policies allowing many countries to abandon it.

Free teleconference on freelancing 11/16/2009

Information obtained from Richard Prince’s three-times-a-week online column, Journal-isms:
Freelance writer Katherine Reynolds Lewis, former money/work reporter in Newhouse News Service’s Washington Bureau, has organized a free teleconference on “How to Succeed As a Freelancer or Consultant.” Co-sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and CurrentMom.com, the teleconference runs from 2-3:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday. To register, visit http://workfreelance.eventbrite.com/

According to AAJA, the speakers include

Speakers include:
* Joe Grimm, creator of JobsPage.com, Poynter columnist and visiting journalist at Michigan State University
* Stephenie Overman, freelance writer and DC Society of Professional Journalists’ freelance coordinator
* Katherine Reynolds Lewis, freelance writer for outlets such as About.com, MSN Money and Parade, and founder of CurrentMom.com, a site for entrepreneurs
* Victoria Lim, media trainer, freelance journalist, consultant and convergence expert
* Arnesa Howell, freelance writer for magazines including People and Money.

Topics to be covered:
* Starting a freelance career on the sidelines of your day job
* Balancing fun or prestigious assignments with bread-and-butter work that pays the mortgage
* Is this the golden age of freelancing? Or a good time to flee to the safety of a solid employer?
* Pitching and cultivating relationships with editors or other clients
* How to think like an entrepreneur, not an employee

Journos Using Facebook 11/10/2009

The Poynter Institute  will host a Webinar Thursday to help journalists effectively use Facebook to reach new audiences, enhance their storytelling and engage online readers.

The event, offered via Poynter’s NewsU, begins at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Nov. 12.

Ellyn Angelotti, interactivity editor of Poynter Online and adjunct faculty at Poynter, will demonstrate how news organizations are using Facebook. Participants will explore best practices and techniques for building an online presence.

The one-hour Webinar costs $24.95. For more information and to register, go to www.newsu.org/FacebookWebinar09.

Seminar About Women, Online Media 10/15/2009

Women news creators/consumers: Register for upcoming Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit in D.C., http://www.newmediawomen.org/events/register. The event, held on Nov. 9 at the Kaiser Family Foundation Public Affairs Center, is supported by the McCormick Foundation  New Media Women Entrepreneurs project. Topics to be covered include training citizen journalists, launching niche sites and J-Lab  research on the media needs of women news consumers/creators.