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After two months, the first ever blogging competition in NUS, Blogfest 2006, has finally come to an end. Winners were announced on March 30 2006, 1159 hrs at the official event website, where online voting decided the winners of the contest.
"This is my first time in a blogging competition so I won't deny that it feels strangely amusing to be able to emerge victorious at my first attempt," said Nuraishah Hamza, winner of Best NUS Blog.
Her blog, No Recess @ http://aishahhamza.livejournal.com emerged victorious out of the most contested category in the competition.
Winner of Most Creative Blog, Hong Wanting (Lord, can you tell me... How far is Heaven? @ http://sparklette.net/ ) , felt that getting the award was "an official recognition of the quality work" she had put in.
Termed as the "blogging ah beng" by many and the protagonist himself, Al is the winner of Funniest Blog. Al's blog, Alcoholic Inspirations @ http://-intoxicated-.blogspot.com/ was involuntarily entered into the competition by a mysterious friend, who has yet to surface. Despite the irony, the "ah beng" style of writing has won the hearts of many voters.
Besides the recognition as the pioneer winners of Blogfest, the three winners also received cash, web hosting accounts, MP3 players, Asialinx discount cards and California Fitness vouchers as prizes.
The first Blogfest was a collaborative effort between the school department, teaching staff, students, local blogging scene and the public.
Blogfest 2006 was co-organised by students from the NUS Arts Club and Communications and New Media (CNM) Society. The event was sponsored and supported by the CNM Department and Arts Club.
Teaching staff from the CNM Department, Dr Linda Perry and Mr Raaj Chandran were judges for the Best NUS Blog category, while local veteran bloggers, Mr Miyagi and Mr Brown were judges for the Most Creative Blog and Funniest Blog categories. The public also played a part by casting votes to decide the eventual winners of the contest.
By the end of the blogging competition, there was a total of 5330 hits on the official website during the 2-month event while 300 voters registered to cast votes during the contest.
Being the first blogging competition in NUS, Blogfest 2006 has received much media attention in the virtual and real world settings.
It has been featured in tomorrow.sg, a popular bulletin for Singapore bloggers; across national newspapers like Straits Times Digital Life; on online newsletters and portals like Funkygrad, Youth.sg, Hooked.org, Ygnite.org and made waves by going on air at Radio Pulze, the campus radio station of NUS.
Many finalists in the competition commended the publicity efforts of the organiser, but some expressed that technical aspects of the event could be improved on.
Some thought that 4 weeks of voting were too long, while some hoped that the voting system would be more secure. A number of technical glitches clouded the competition. The website was suspended due to a server problem and votes were reset as cheaters were found toying with the voting mechanism.
Some members of the public were a little disappointed at the quality of the blogs in the competition. Flame wars among some contestants also sparked controversy on the same issue.
Although it looked like Blogfest 2006 was plagued with problems, it was also undeniable that many enjoyed themselves.
Friendships were formed among the finalist bloggers and the event had raised the profile of many commendable blogs. Some finalist bloggers have turned part time writers for online portals, and Blogfest 2006 had also created quite a stir in NUS, especially among the CNM majors. All these positive results gave much encouragement to the organiser.
"I would like to thank all who were involved, from my committee who worked their ass off, to the bloggers who registered, to the voters who cast votes. Thanks for making my little Blogfest Dream come true," said Jackson Tan, Project Director of Blogfest 2006.
The Blogfest Dream looks set to make more headlines in 2007 as the organiser has already "received enquiries from sponsors regarding the blogging competition next year," said Tan.
List of winners:
Best NUS Blog:
Nuraishah Hamza
No Recess @ http://aishahhamza.livejournal.com
Most Creative Blog:
Hong Wanting
Lord can you tell me... How far is Heaven? @ http://sparklette.net/
Funniest Blog:
Alcoholic Inspirations @ http://-intoxicated-.blogspot.com/
HOOKED
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