Voting begins for The Bobs online activism awards

Internet users have started voting for the ‘The Bobs – Best of Online Activism’ awards.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 2 April 2016, 05:28 AM
Updated : 8 April 2016, 09:39 PM

German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle gives out these awards every year.
 
More than 2,300 websites and online projects from around the world had submitted nominations for The Bobs this year.
 
An international jury has short-listed 126 finalists in 14 languages – nine for Bengali - for the 12th edition of the competition, according to a DW press release.
 
The nominations consist of five finalists for the award's 14 languages and 14 finalists for each of the four special, multilingual categories: Social Change, Tech for Good, Arts and Culture and Citizen Journalism.
 
From Bangladesh, documentary ‘Razor’s Edge’ was nominated in Citizen Journalism category, ‘Save Sundarbans’ campaign in Social Change, Bangladesh’s first website and corresponding mobile app on women’s health issues ‘Maya Apa’ in Tech for Good and photographer GMB Akash’s Instagram page in Arts and Culture category.
 
The five blogs that were chosen for the award in Bangla category are ‘Probir Bidhan’s Blog’, ‘Istishon Blog’, ‘German Probashe’, a website for Bengali students living in Germany, ‘Agni Sarothi’s Blog’ and ‘Itu’s Blog’.
 
The internet users from Bangladesh can cast votes for them until May 2 at thebobs.com/bengali.
 
This year, the Bobs’ media partners are Alsumaria, Somewhere in... blog, bdnews24.com, Bangla Tribune, China Digital Times, IFEX, Global Voices, Waza, Satyagrah, Webdunia, Gooya, Hromadske TV, Novoye Vremya and Medyatava.
 
Started from Thursday, users from across the world will be able to vote for their favourite website, app, person or project at thebobs.com.
 
The top vote-getters will win The Bobs 2016 User Awards. A panel of expert jury members will also meet in Berlin to determine the recipients of the Jury Awards in the four multilingual categories.
 
This year's winners will be invited to the award ceremony as part of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum on Jun 14 in Germany’s Bonn, said the press release.
 
Bangladeshi blog ‘Mukto-Mona’, or free mind, had received the ‘The Bobs – Best of Online Activism’ award last year in the ‘Social Change’ category.