It’s a pity that the Australian Blog Awards are no more – killed, I think, because the person who was running them got disheartened by the amount of negative flak he was receiving compared to the effort required to organise the whole process. But the OLO/Club Troppo awards are still with us – and the series has begun at OLO with an introduction from James Farrell.

Again, I think there are a number of issues which could be raised about the way in which the awards are framed – in particular the equation of a post with an op/ed – which I think reflects an earlier phase of the Australian blogosphere. I’m not sure there’s all that much value in seeing blogging as akin to op/ed writing – OLO provides a venue for op/eds outside the MSM, and I think that’s excellent, but blogging really is a different form. On a recent thread about motivations to blog, I think TimT summed up the difference very nicely indeed. But, still, there’s no doubt going to be lots of good stuff to read among the winners.