DW's BOBs: Who deserves an online activism award?

And we’re off! Starting on February 6, the ninth annual The Bobs online activism awards are underway. We’re ready for your suggestions of the best in online activism.

What’s new?

This year we’re expanding to include more languages and categories than ever. Starting now, The Bobs accepts submissions in three more languages: Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian. That brings to the total up to 14: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian. Other than being in one of those 14 languages, websites and projects submitted to The Bobs have to be accessible to the public — that means no password restrictions or registration requirements.

We’ve also increased the number of categories this year. For the first time, we’ll also be looking to honor microbloggers in each individual language. These categories are open to people using Twitter, Weibos or any other microblog platform to share their views. You can find out more about the categories here. 

An international award

This year we have an excellent international jury panel to put together list of finalists in all 34 categories. The jury members are also the people who will meet in May in Berlin for two days worth of discussions decide on the winners of the Jury Awards in the six main, multilingual categories. With a representative from each of The Bobs’ languages, the nominees that set themselves apart in these six categories can truly call themselves international award winners.

The other categories in The Bobs — Best Blog and Best Person to Follow in each language — will be decided by an online vote. We will be calling on Internet users around the world to vote for the sites and projects they find most impressive — both in the language-specific categories as well as to hand out the Users’ Choice Prizes in the multilingual categories as well.

Save the dates

• February 6 – March 6: Submit candidates in 14 languages and 34 categories
• March 6 – April 3: Give the jury some time to evaluate submissions and create the list of finalists.
• April 4 – May 7: Vote online to decide the winners of the Users’ Choice Prizes in all 34 categories
• May 4 – May 5: The jury panel meets in Berlin to decide the winners of the Jury Award in the six main, multilingual categories.
• May 7: Turn in right here to find out all the winners of The Bobs 2013
• June 18: Jury Award winners will be in Bonn to pick up their prizes at an award ceremony as part of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum.

(Source : The BOBs)