2007 Blogisattva Winners Announced

Bill Harryman’s Integral Options Café [link] won the top 2007 Blogisattva award and three others according to an announcement released early this morning at the Blogisattva webspace. IOC was named Blog of the Year, Svaha! and feted for Best Achievement Blogging on Integral Issues and for Best Achievement in Wide Range of Topic Interests Blogging. An ongoing series of almost-daily linkfests within the blog, called speedlinking, won the award for Best Niche activity. The Awards website called Integral Options Café “fulsome and intellectually hefty - yet fun, smooth, easy and delightful.” Harryman was praised as having “a broad and sophisticated palate of what is worthwhile and interesting” and for being “masterful” with his Integral-informed essays and multi-part articles.

Best Post of the Year was won by Cliff Jones and his blog This Is This [link] for an entry last May titled “Vesak and the Art of Changing Tyres.” The post tells of Jones’s serendipitous experience teaching a classroom of five year olds the meaning of Vesak, Buddha’s birthday, and the special effort to be especially nice on that day. The awards site called the post “A stunning achievement” told with “toothsome brio.” Jones and This Is This also won Best Achievement with Humor in a Blog Post for an entry last June called “Burrito.” Beginning by using the contents of a burrito as an example, Jones cleverly explores the meaning of “interbeing,” how everyone and everything inter-exist.

The Wordsmithing Prize for skilled writing was given to Will Buckingham who blogs both thinkBuddha.org [link] and WillBuckingham's weblog [link]. Buckingham was cited for
“his unique abilities that turn phrases into gold [and] churn lofty thoughts into buttery text.”

Michael of One foot in front of the other [link] took three awards from his four nominations, winning for Best Achievement Blogging in the First Person, for Best Achievement in Kind and Compassionate Blogging and for Best Achievement in Creation or Use of Graphics in a Blog. The Blogisattva announcement cited the blog’s entries as being “fiercely attractive and vividly human” and that whether as prose, poetry or pictures as being “works of art.” Michael’s photographs were termed “consistantly amazing” often with “wondrous, surprising details.”

George Dvorsky and his Sentient Developments [link] won two awards, for Best Achievement Blogging on Matters Philosophical or Scientific and for Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design. The awards announcement praised George for writing “with perfect clarity and great intelligence” and for a web design that "perfectly fits the nature of his serious science-themed blog."

Buddhist Geeks [link], a group podcasting blog, was named Best New Blog of the Year. Ryan Oelke, Gwen Bell and Vince Horn were cited as the “triumphant triumvirate” behind the cutting-edge effort who were proving that “Buddhists can be geeky. And they rock.”

Tyson Williams of tysonwilliams.com [link] was cited for consistant excellence and beautiful presentation in winning the inaugural Best Achievement Blogging on Buddhist Practice or Dharma. Quoting the awards site, "Tyson’s blog is a must stop for the dharma lover that we all are."

Bhikkhu's Blog [link] won the award for Best Achievement Blogging Opinion Pieces or about Political Issues. At the awards webspace it was written “Ajahn Punnadhammo tackles important issues and brings his incisive genius to the fore in delving deeply into the nexis of problems and conflict.”

The popular The Buddhist Blog [link] won the inaugural Best Achievement with Use of Quotations in a Blog. In the announcement post it said “James Ure presents wise words both unannotated and, at other times, adding interesting commentary from his experience.”

Paul Salamone’s “inspired touches” transforming a Blogger template, turning the ordinary into extraordinary, won him the award for Best Achievement in Clean, Straightforward, Unaffected Design for his The DENVER Anti-Apathy Cluster [link].

“Happy. Geeky. Energetic.” C4 of ~C4Chaos [link] won the Golden Pig for Blogger Best Demonstating a Multiplicity of Talents. At the awards site, it said, “He is combative, but kindly. Interested in all things, but sure of what he thinks.”

Buddhist Chaplain Danny Fisher of Danny Fisher [link] won for Best Multi-Part Blog Post for his 25-entry India series. The series took readers on a tour of India with visits to places of special interest to Buddhists and included scads of great photographs.

Soen Joon Sunim’s “a note on death,” posted in her defunct blog One robe, one bowl was named Best Achievement in a Compassionate Blog Post. Her post tells the story of living “in the presence of death, which calls into question the meaning of life.”

And, finally, Best Conversation-Sparking Blog Post (not necessarily a good thing) went to Ken Wilber’s “attack post” in kenwilber.com, “What we are, that we see.” Dozens of Integral-interested bloggers analysed this post before and after it was revealed that the post was all “a test.”

Technorati tags: Blogisattva Awards, Blogisattva, Buddhism

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

This is doubly cool, so I have to share it. The photo at left is of the Smith Brothers, each of whom has started a blog in recent months from the roof of the world [Michael is a Fulbright scholar doing research in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Dan is in Sichuan Province, China, working for an NGO, The Bridge Fund.]. The little coughdrops in front of the Smiths are the monks Fearless Wisdom and Fearless Compassion. [Which is which twin, I’m not absolutely sure of. But does it matter, except to the guys’ moms?]

The pic was kiped from Michael’s blog Kathmandu for You, which is doubly nominated for Blogisattva honors. Dan’s blog is Kham Abiding. [Ohhh, those Buddhists. Into suffering, no wonder there is often so much pun – ishment.]

Update: Be wary. I was attacked by spyware [HotBar 4.8.4.0] clicking into Dan's blogspace.