The 2009 Lankanosphere Awards - The Innovation Award

Hello dear reader (s). Sorry about the delay in proceedings but we're back with the next award and it's another new one. This means that the virtual trophy is sparkly, shiny and gleaming. It's never been received by anyone before and may well never be received by anyone again. We like to live dangerously here at LLD, but not dangerous in that precarious mountain walking way.

Innovation is a puzzling phenom in terms of blogging and the Lankanosphere because, let's face it, there isn't exactly oodles of the stuff seeping out of every orifice, making a mess on the floor for an old aunty to then slip over on and break her hip. Clearly that's a good thing as far as the aunt is concerned, but for the rest of us bloggers it's not so good. Not that we've got anything against aunts of course. In fact, in my opinion Aunts are usually preferable to Sri Lankan mothers, though don't tell my one that if you see her broomsticking her way around Colombo.

But there are still a few innovative blogs and ideas that have cropped up and these, as far as me and the vast team of judges here are concerned, need some recognition. Enough of my rambling, let's move on to the nominees, the bloggers and blogs who have been more creative than one of those wild, mad and eccentric types, poets I think they're called, though not the ones who write poems that don't rhyme, as they're totally mad.

1. Surani's Baby Diary - I've surprised myself with the inclusion of this blog. I'm sure there must be other blogs like this in the International blogosphere but this is the only one I'm aware of in the Lankan one. It's all about kids, two in particular, and is a huge outpouring of mother's love, which is nice. Sue, the mother concerned, has talked us through the births and growing upness of her two little girls. So far, much to my credit, even if I say it myself, I've resisted the urge to leave comments and explain exactly what two cute little girls become in about ten or fifteen years. I'm kind like that.

This year we witnessed the birth of the second girl, called Dilmi, with pictures that made us all say "aaaaah". I wonder, in years to come, if the two girls will ever read the blog and what they'll think. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

2. Talk Chalk - This is the work of that St Fallen fellow who writes his other blog here. He says that Talk Chalk is how he channels his inner retard and that he talks in the third person. Well RD hates that third person stuff, he really does.

I don't know how he does it but it's a series of cartoon drawing things with some witty lines and scripting going on. It's strangely addictive though I find, with my advancing years, that I don't understand around half the jokes and the half I do understand I don't really get. Look at this one as an example. It made me break out in a broad grin and I haven't got the faintest idea why. Also, if you have a look at his archive page here you'll see in the bottom left corner the smallest smiley ever known to mankind.

3. Cerno's Book Project - The Right Honourable Cerno needs no introduction, except to people who don't know him. He's consistently one of the innovators of the Lankanosphere with ideas like his google earth related posts as well as his ongoing study of Sri Lankan graphic design.

The book project, or T100SLBPBP as it came to roll smoothly off the tongue, was Cerno's idea of compiling some of the best Lankan blog posts and putting them out in a book form. We were all behind Cerno, mostly because we all fancied being included in a book. Well all except David Blacker and Brandon, who selfishly have books with their names on the cover already.

Sadly the project just sort of ran out of steam and Cerno decided to abandon it. It's still there for the taking if anyone wants to nurture and develop it so one day it might see the light of day. In the meantime I suppose the Kottu section in the Sunday Leader is a kind of relative spawned form Cerno's idea. Either way, it's a fantastic idea that the Cerno put a load of time, effort and creativity into.

4. Dream Into Reality - For about the last five years this blogger, Rajaratarala, has lived and planted himself, quite literally, in the motherland. He tells us on his profile that he's lived most of his life in the US and here in the UK and is now learning to live his new life in Lanka. It's a captivating, joyful and tear inducing account of his victories and losses, triumphs and disasters.

Have a glance at this post or this one to see some of the battles he's trying to fight, they make for educational reading. I've been one of his many readers for some time and I hope that the struggles reduce for him, even if he has way too many of his fair share of A's in his name. Half, yes half, of the letters are A's. That's just wrong. I know a girl who has an eight letter name and half of those are I's. They're merciless vowel thieves these fellows, thy mst b stppd bfr t's t lt.

That's it for the nominees. Sadly Sittingnut's brilliantly unique idea to do a round up of Sri Lankan blog posts didn't make it into the category.

It's my genuine pleasure to announce that the first winner of the Lankanopshere award for innovation is......


........Cerno with the Top 100 SL Blog Post Book Project.

At this point we welcome David Blacker, who has agreed to act as a guest judge. He had these words to say about the T100SLBPBP and he meant them:

"I've always liked Cerno's blog, and in fact it was one of the first I ever visited on Kottu. He's always got cool stuff, from google maps images of Tiger boats to building your own radar. But his '100 Blog Posts' book idea was one of the best, and it was a great pity that no one actually picked it up and did it. The closest it came to reality was Indi's Kottu section in the Sunday Leader. However, it certainly was an innovative suggestion, and might have raised some useful charity moolah. Maybe one day it'll actually happen, but 'til then, a little bit of blogger immortality goes to Cerno."

I must thank the other nominees, particularly Dream into Reality, which came a very close second. They've all given me many hours of stimulating reading and prove that there are some innovators out in the Sri Lankan blogosphere.

RD