From now until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Friday, January 11, 2008, anyone can nominate their favorite weblogs.

That Sunday, January 13, three panels of 50 voters will receive an e-mail. It will list the weblogs that have received the most nominations in ten categories. They will have until 10:00 PM EST on Friday, January 18 to privately submit their five favorites (six for Weblog of the Year) for each category. The five (or six for Weblog of the Year) receiving the most votes will become finalists. I (Nikolai Nolan) will only vote for the panel in the case of a tie for fifth place. This panel is on an opt-in policy; there is a checkbox on this form for it.

On Tuesday, January 22, the finalists will be announced and voting will be open again to choose the winners.

Voting will close at 10:00 PM EST on Thursday, January 31. The winners will be posted sometime between Sunday, March 9 and Tuesday, March 11.

Not only can you nominate your favorite blogs within a slew of distinct categories but you can also vote and comment on others that have already been submitted. In turn, others can also vote and comment on the blogs you've nominated. The exciting thing is votes will be shown on the site in real-time, so you can see who's leading within each category! Winners in each respective category will be recognized at a one-of-a-kind awards ceremony on June 2nd, at Postiecon in Orlando, FL. After the ceremony, the results will be posted on this page.

There are no restrictions to nominations, votes, or comments. You can nominate as many blog sites as you want. In fact, the more the better! You can also comment as often as you'd like. You may also vote for as many blogs as you like, but you can only vote once per blog, per category.

The video-sharing Web site announced Monday that it will hold the first YouTube Video Awards to recognize the best-user created videos of 2006. The awards will be handed out in seven categories: most creative, most inspirational, best series, best comedy, musician of the year, best commentary and "most adorable video ever."

The nominees, picked by YouTube, are compiled in a gallery at www.youtube.com/YTAwards. YouTube community members can vote on their favorites beginning Monday and concluding on Friday. The winners, as chosen by the community, will be announced March 25. Each will be prominently featured on YouTube and receive a trophy, the design of which will be revealed later.

Among the nominees are noted "vloggers" Paul Robinett ("Renetto") and Peter Oakley ("Geriatric1927"). The comedy of Barats and Bereta, and Smosh, is also nominated, as are series such as Lonelygirl15's and "Ask a Ninja." The power pop band OK Go is perhaps the most professional of the nominees; it's nominated for the famous treadmill-choreographed music video, "Here It Goes Again."

The purpose of the new category is to encourage and honor exemplary local journalism, marked by strong reporting across a spectrum of potential subjects. "The Pulitzer Prizes have long valued such reporting," Gissler said, "but this makes our interest much more explicit."

While the local category replaces the Beat Reporting category that was created in 1991, the work of beat reporters remains eligible for entry in a wide range of categories that include-depending on the specialty involved-national, investigative, and explanatory reporting, as well as the new local category.

With its new rules for online submissions, the Pulitzer Board will require each online element to be a single, discretely designated presentation, such as a database, blog, interactive graphic, slide show, or video presentation. Each designated element will count as one item in the total number of items, print or online, that are permitted in an entry.

Q. What is an online element?
A. It is a single, unified, discretely designated presentation. For example, it can be an online story, database, blog, interactive graphic, slide show or video presentation. Each designated element will count as one item in the total number permitted in an entry.

Q. How much online content can a single element contain?
A. There is no absolute limit. However, the burden on a jury should be kept in mind. An online element with multiple parts, such as a blog with manifold postings, should be a cohesive presentation. The conceptual logic tying the parts together should be clear.

Powell has been working as a nanny and secretarial temp while penning her blog, in which she tries to cook recipes from American cookery grande dame Julia Child in a cramped New York apartment over the course of a year.

"Too old for theatre, too young for children, and too bitter for anything else, Julie Powell was looking for a challenge," she writes.

"And in the Julie/Julia project she found it. Risking her marriage, her job and her cats' wellbeing, she has signed on for a deranged assignment: 365 days, 536 recipes, one girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen."

The book of the blog has sold over 100,000 copies, and a film is planned shortly.

Baghdad Burning, a first-hand account written under the pseudonym Riverbend, is one of 19 books in contention.

Others include Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, a biography of 19th-Century cook and author Mrs Beeton and a study of post-war US-Soviet relations.

The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on 14 June.

Professor Robert Winston, chair of the judging panel, said this year's longlist contained "an exceptionally wide variety of genres".

Three years later and the nightmares of bombings and of shock and awe have evolved into another sort of nightmare. The difference between now and then was that three years ago, we were still worrying about material things- possessions, houses, cars, electricity, water, fuel... It's difficult to define what worries us most now. Even the most cynical war critics couldn't imagine the country being this bad three years after the war... Allah yistur min il rab3a (God protect us from the fourth year).

First, the comment. From our point of view, the important work of the awards is mostly complete. We view the nominating process and the posting of links to all the nominated blogs, posts, and series as the core of the awards. If the idea is to build community and honor people who have provided free information, enlightenment, and entertainment over an entire year (and it is), that job is mostly done.

The winning and losing part is completely secondary. After all, it is not really possible to determine who is MOST deserving of wider recognition. There is just no metric to apply. It is quite possible to make a large list of lefty bloggers who deserve greater recognition. That we have done. The same analysis applies to the other categories as well.

Sports blogs are one of the strongest niches in the blogosphere and have received a great deal of publicity and notice from the mainstream media. Sports bloggers deserve some respect and gratification for the work they do, and that's what I hope this will accomplish.

"As a citizen of the blogosphere, Feedster has always recognized the achievements of independent bloggers and publishers. Our Feed of The Day was created as an opportunity to honor a unique voice or technology from within the din of the web," says Alan Graham, Feedster’s Community Liaison. "We are taking this one step further with our "Feed of The Year" Countdown. During the entire month of December we will recognize some of the best contributors to the blogosphere from our own Feed of The Day list."

SmartyHost said the competition was accepting entries from any Australian regardless of the where their blog was hosted, and out of 25,000 visitors to the entry page, 500 had so far put their blog forward for the top prize.

Anoosh Manzoori, managing director, said this was the first time a competition of this size had set its sights on blogging.

"The judging will assess the actual content of the blog and how frequently they update their content," he said.

The judging panel will comprise a number of journalists, academics and executives from outside the company, who will jointly decide on the winning blog.

How can I stay awake?
Ah, the age-old question: how to stay awake 24 hours while posting clever entries in your blog every thirty minutes? Some tried-and-true ways include:

Quick, cold showers.

Chatting online with other Blogathon participants.

Dancing! Dancing, singing and general moving help keep you awake in the late hours of the event.

Watch movies, television, play computer games or board games or anything that will engage your attention. Plus, you'll have something to write about.

Have a themed blog! If you're busy writing about the history of the yam or making a collage for your sponsors, you'll have a goal to sustain you through the event.