2011 - Tag Archive

Technology Bloggers community awards 2012

14 Replies Christopher Roberts

Slightly later than last year (I was on holiday in Italy over New Year this year), I am now going to announce the winners of Technology Bloggers community awards!

This is the second year of community awards, and this year, the awards were democratic. I gave you (the community), the opportunity to suggest awards and nominations, and then you voted on who you wanted to win each of the six awards.

This year each award had 4 nominees, meaning that there were 24 nominations; which were filled by 13 different people.

You have voted, and the results are now in. Here are this years winners.

Top Commenter

Nominees:

  • Lillie Ammann
  • Peter Lee
  • David Jamieson
  • Neil Duncan

Runner Up

Lillie AmmannThe runner up for this years top commenter community award is Lillie Ammann! Congratulations for Lillie for her nomination, she doesn’t comment very often but when she does, it is always kind words and useful feedback 🙂 You can find out more about Lillie by visiting her blog.

Winner

Peter LeeWith 57% of the vote, the clear winner of this years top commenter award is Peter Lee! My thanks go out to Peter for his fantastic contribution to the blog. Peter commented on the blog around 60 times in 2012, which is quite a lot! Never were his comments bland or meaningless though, they always added value to the article, which is a credit to Peter and the community. Peter has a website which you can visit called Computer How To Guide.

Top Writer (Contributor)

Nominees:

  • Alan Tay
  • Hayley Anderson
  • Nick Sotos
  • Chadrack Irobogo

Runner Up

Hayley AndersonHayley Anderson took 29% of the community vote, putting her in second place. Hayley likes to write about nanotechnology, a very interesting industry which is advancing all the time. Hayley maintains a website herself, which is about Microscopes.

Winner

Alan TayThe winner of the top contributor category of the community awards 2012 is Alan Tay! So far Alan has contributed 7 articles to the blog, and displays many of the characteristics of a good writer. Alan often replies to people who comment on his articles, and generally writes thoughtful and useful material. Alan is a specialist in IT Security, which he blogs about on his own site too.

Top Writer (Author+)

Nominees:

  • Christopher Roberts
  • Jonny Hankins
  • Steve August
  • Ron Fletcher

Runner Up

Jonny HankinsIn a very respectable second place is Jonny Hankins. Author and innovation and responsibility researcher for the Bassetti Foundation, who currently resides in Boston (USA), Jonny has been a great author this year. His posts have inspired, amazed and amused, making him a true credit to the blog. Check out more of his work by visiting the Bassetti Foundation website.

Winner

Christopher RobertsIt is with the utmost pride that I announce that the winner of the top author award 2012 is me – Christopher Roberts! It was a close fought contest between me and Jonny and myself, with 37.5% and 62.5% of the vote respectively – I am honoured to have won. Personally I feel that Jonny’s posts are often better than mine, but I shall acknowledge to the public vote and declare myself the winner. Thank you everyone 🙂

Rising Star

Nominees:

  • Steve August
  • Jonny Hankins
  • David Jamieson
  • Chadrack Irobogo

Runner Up

Steve AugustWith 25% of the vote Steve August is the runner up for this award. Steve is relatively new to the community, and yet in the 5 months of 2012 that he was part of the community, he posted 7 app reviews – his preferred area of writing. Steve also contributes to Alpha Digits where you can read more of his work.

Winner

Jonny Hankins63% of the vote saw Jonny Hankins take the 2012 community award for rising star! My heartfelt congratulations go to Jonny for his fantastic contribution to the blog. With 59 posts and a series under his belt already, who knows where 2013 will take his ever progressing blogging career!

Most Friendly Member of the Community

Nominees:

  • Tammi Kibler
  • Peter Lee
  • Lillie Ammann
  • Chadrack Irobogo

Runner Up

Lillie AmmannLillie Ammann was also nominated for this category, and took 25% of the vote, making her the runner up for this award 2012. Again, well done Lillie for the nomination and votes, you are a truly valued member of the community.

Winner
Peter LeePeter Lee took his second award this year by winning the most friendly member of the community award. Huge congratulations to Peter, as willing two awards is quite something! I look forward to your participation in 2013 🙂

Top All Rounder

Nominees:

  • Christopher Roberts
  • Jonny Hankins
  • Alan Tay
  • Chadrack Irobogo

Runner Up

Jonny HankinsNow for the big one, the top all rounder. In the past I have referred to this as “Technology Bloggers ultimate award” as it is for someone who is an example an outstanding community member, which is why it is very deservingly that Jonny Hankins was nominated for this award, which he claimed runner up status for. One community award and runner up for another two, not a bad 2012 Jonny!

Winner
Christopher RobertsI am truly humbled to have received 91% of the vote for this award. I love this blog and the people who make it as great as it is, which is probably why I put so much time and effort into posting content, moderating comments, tweaking things and generally just doing my best to make it a fantastic site to visit. Again, I would like to thank everyone who voted for me, I am truly grateful.

Well that’s 2012’s awards over, 6 categories, with 7 unique winners and runners up, democratically chosen by you: the readers of the blog.

2012 Community Award Winners

2012 was a brilliant year for us, and our visitor numbers prove it. Here is a sneak peak at some traffic stats that I wouldn’t usually publicly release.

Technology Bloggers Traffic

The number of visits the blog has had (per month) since it started on April the 13th 2011.

Happy New Year everyone, here’s to 2013!

YouTube’s most watched UK videos of 2012

10 Replies Christopher Roberts

As there are now just a few days left in 2012, this is going to be another fun/festive post 🙂

Last year I explored YouTube’s most popular 10 videos in the UK for 2011, and it turned out to be an enjoyable post to write, (and hopefully also to read/watch) so I thought I would do the same again this year!

In the UK, the 10th most popular video was the BBC video posted as part of their coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games, which featured James Bond escorting the Queen to the games. The video is entitled James Bond escorts The Queen to the opening ceremony and is a must see – hence why it is below 🙂

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In 9th place, is the The Nick Clegg Apology Song, as created by The Poke. Mr Clegg (leader of the Liberal Democrat party) made a political party broadcast in September of this year, apologising for breaking his promise about not raising university tuition fees. The Poke then used Autotune along with some video editing, to make a very funny apology song out of Mr Cleggs speech.

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Pop/Opera duo Charlotte & Jonathan, came in an impressive 8th place, with their video which has received over  25 million views since March this year. The video is a recording of their performance on the TV show, Britain’s Got Talent, a show which they untimely finished second. Check out their video here.

The 7th most popular video in the UK this year was Felix Baumgartner’s jump from space. Felix broke world records as he jumped from over 24 miles above the earth, landing safely after a reaching a maximum speed of 833 miles per hour!

6th place was taken by the fantastic market trader who had a ‘£1 Fish’ song. Songs seem to be doing pretty well this year in terms of trending on YouTube! The camera man asks the market trader to “Do your fish song for me…” and the trader starts a fantastic song in order to try to sell his stock. Again, this is a must see 🙂

There is also a remix done by The Poke (the same people who made the Nick Clegg apology song) which is also worth a watch.

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asdfmovie4 was 7th on the list last year, and the next edition of the comedy animation was sure to be a hit too, which it was with asdfmovie5 taking 5th place on the 2012 list.

4th place was claimed by Lucy Spraggan’s audition on the X Factor. She sung a song she had written called Last Night, which the audience loved, and became an instant hit!

A cover of the song Somebody That I Used to Know took the bronze medal position, coming in third. The band Walk off the Earth did a cover of the Gotye song, which involved all five of the band members using the same guitar to play the song. It was very clever and a pretty good song, hence why it was a major hit.

KONY 2012, a video by a US activist group about the use of child soldiers took third place. The video is almost 30 minutes long, which is pretty impressive considering how popular it proved. Its popularity was probably due to the emotional impact it had on people.

Now for the big one, the video that was top of the UK list and top of the global list. The video which is now the most watched video on the internet. The video which became popular in the shortest amount of time. The video which had spread around the world in just a few weeks. That video is Gangnam Style. If you haven’t seen it, or heard it, you are among a select few! Earlier this month, the video by Korean artist Psy, made YouTube history, topping 1 billion views! The video has been rated millions of times, with over 6 million likes, and around half a million dislikes.

So that’s it, the 10 most popular YouTube videos of 2012. In memory of the great videos that have trended this year, YouTube have put together a fantastic compilation video, which includes references to loads of the websites popular videos this year, or as YouTube put it: “We invited some YouTubers to star in a mash-up of culturally defining moments of 2012. Can you spot all the references?”

If you have seen all of the above videos, it is great fun to watch this YouTube 2012 mash up.

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Global Top Ten

If you are interested, here is the global top 10 trending videos of 2012:
YouTube's Logo

  1. Gangnam Style
  2. Walk Off the Earth
  3. Kony 2012
  4. Call Me Maybe
  5. Obama v Romney epic rap battle
  6. A dramatic surprise on a quiet square
  7. Why you asking all them questions?
  8. Dubstep Violin
  9. Facebook parenting
  10. Freefall from the Edge of Space

What was your favourite video of 2012, and which video(s) do you feel had a major global impact?

JibJab’s 2012 year review

6 Replies Christopher Roberts

We are now in that part of the year when I like to write more general interest posts with more of a fun and festive theme.

JibJab's LogoLast year I commented on JibJab’s 2011 year review, (2011 Buh-Bye) and as in 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005, JibJab have created a Year in Review video, where they take the major events of the year, and mash them together in one fast, fantastic, usually quite funny, video.

JibJab are an American based company, so the content is usually slightly more geared towards American current affairs. However, that said it usually includes lots of globally significant events too.

This years video was released on the 20th of December, a day before the world was supposed to end, topically calling this years video, The End is Here! Luckily the world didn’t end, so you can watch the video here now 🙂

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You might need to watch the video more than once to find all the years significant events references, as there are quite a few!

Some of the major references you probably picked out include: the amazing global popularity of Gangnam Style; the 2012 London Olympic games; the release of Marvel’s the Avengers; the issues Facebook had when it floated on the stock exchange; Barack Obama’s election victory; Lance Armstrong loosing his cycling titles; the growth in the number of people doing Zumba; the rapid melting of Arctic Ice; Felix Baumgartner’s 24 mile jump (from space); not forgetting the widely discussed end of the world!

I always look forward to JibJab’s Year in Review video, but it is impossible to fit everything in, so like I asked you last year, what do you think was missed out?