The Singapore Blog Award 2009 - Results

After four months of voting frenzy, the Singapore Blog Awards (SBA) has come to a closure.

The winners were revealed on 16 Sept at the SBA Award Ceremony. Although I am not one of them, I feel that I have already won so much over the last four months. First of all, it was flattering to be shortlisted from about 1500 nominees as one of the finalists.

I started blogging because I just wanted to write and I did not think I was good in any way. Not that I was bothered. The SBA episode made me take a greater interest in the blogosphere. I learned that blogging is not just about writing anything I want in a style of my choice. It is about engagement, honesty and responsibility as well.

The diversity in the blogging community gave me great enlightenment. Each of the finalists has blogging style which is intriguing in its own way. I have not found myself reading so many blogs within such a short time before.


The award ceremony was held at the Supperclub (Odeon Towers). I was not there to witness the excitement but I was following the updates on omy website and live tweets (#sba2009).

Supperclub originated from Amsterdam and now has its presence in Singapore, San Fancisco and Istanbul. London is next. It is a place which is said to defy definition and offer unusual dining experience.


According to the owner, Bert van der Leden, 'freedom is the keyword at Supperclub". Its all-white deco speaks for itself. At Supperclub, you can decline on a bed to drink. Bed!

The theme of the club befits the spirit of blogging: "Freedom". Very apt.

At the award ceremony, Guest of Honor, Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Yeo, gave an insightful speech . He shared his views on how the exciting new media can open up to new possibilities.


Catch his speech on this video.

Minister George Yeo claims that he is unfamiliar with the new media. However, I do note that he has two Facebook accounts! He opened the second account because the first account attracted 'too many friends' and it busted the 5,000 limit set by Facebook. (Wow!)

Besides that, he contributes in 'BEYOND SG' which is 'a blog about Singapore and our social and business connectivity with the world.' He also co-blogs at http://ephraim.blogspot.com/ (which seems to be disabled at the time of writing). Coincidentally, his co-blogger, a Singapore Management University student, is also one of the finalists in the 'Most Insightful Blog' category.

I have this to say to Minister Yeo: "I am not sure if you can say that you are 'unfamiliar with the new media'. I know just too many people who have not even heard of the term 'new media', let alone laying their fingers on them."

The winners in each category are inspiration to other bloggers. They set the standard to what makes a good blog and allow others to emulate. Do check out the winners in the various categories.


To all the winners, CONGRATULATIONS!

In the past four months, many readers of my blog have supported me in one way or another. I would like to thank all of you who have visited my blog from time to time. Some of you even took an extra step to vote for me (I hope you turn out to be one of the lucky winners for the voters' prizes).

Here are some snapshots at the award ceremony and the media reports by the Business Times and Lianhe Zaobao.





Business Times - 17 Sep 2009

A chip off the old blog at this year's Blog Awards

MAS Selamat Kastari's escape blew the blogosphere away - so much so that it bagged the 2008 Most Blogged-About Event award at the Singapore Blog Awards 2009.

The awards, in their second year, are organised by Singapore Press Holdings' bilingual Web portal omy.sg to showcase bloggers' creativity and popularise blogging.

The winners were announced at Supperclub last night after four months of online and offline vote rallying. More than 1,500 blog registrations were received for this year's event - a 50 per cent increase from last year.

Ten blogs were short- listed in each of the categories, which include Best Youth Blog, Photo Blog, Lifestyle Blog, Local Celebrity Blog, Individual Blog, Blog Shop and Most Insightful Blogs.

Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said at the awards ceremony that new media is very exciting.

'It has opened up a whole new perspective in my life, and I think it has had the same impact on a lot of people,' said Mr Yeo, whose own blog has the biggest following among those by Cabinet ministers.

Mr Yeo advised bloggers to establish trust with readers, saying that 'establishing trust in that universe (new media) is as important as in the parallel universe which is reality'.

The winners received a trophy and various sponsored prizes, such as a $200 movie premium hamper.


联合早报 （2009-09-17）

杨荣文分享心得：写博客 诚信最重要

● 李韵琳

互联网上虚虚实实混为一团，不少博客也喜欢躲在真实身份背后，但是本地最活跃的博客之一的外交部长杨荣文在分享争取眼球的心得时，所强调的秘诀是诚信，以此鼓励网民在写博客时，从“心”出发。

杨荣文昨晚受邀为第二届“新加坡部落格（博客）大奖”主持颁奖时讲话，指出人和人之间的接触，少不了真诚，网友要的是真诚，博客要争取到眼球，最重要是能赢得他人的信任，因为唯有诚信才能给他们带来真正的优势，让信息得到最广泛的流传。

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