Arab World: Pulling all the Stops for the BoBs  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Arab bloggers nominated for the annual Best of the Blogs award (The BoBs) are pulling all the stops, to attract more votes.
The contest, organised by Deutsche Welle for the sixth year, has entered its final round. More than 8,400 blogs were submitted by 58,837 users for 17 categories and a jury, made up of seasoned bloggers from around the world, selected 187 finalists. (Disclosure: I am one of this year's judges).
Now that the judges work is almost over, it is the turn of the online community to support the finalists through a month-long online voting process, which ends on April 14, 2010. The jury will then meet face to face in Berlin, and the results will be announced on April 15 during re:publica. The shortlists consist of 11 entries in each category.
In the Arabic category, the competing bloggers are as follows: Syrian Medad, Jordanian Osama Romoh, Moroccan Noaufal, Syrian Abdulsalam Ismael, Libyan Ghazi Gheblawi, Egyptian Tarek, Egyptian Jimmy Halim, Algerian Yousef, Bahraini Suad, Moroccan Mustafa Elbakkali and Egyptian Wael Abbas.
On his blog's participation in the BoBs, Medad writes:
تفاجأت بأن مدونتي بلغت المرحلة الثانية من مسابقة البوبز في فئة “افضل مدونة عربية” إلى جانب مدونة عبد السلام عبر إحدى التعليقات الأخيرة في هذه المدونة، ولم أكن قد رشحتها هذه السنة بل قام أحدهم بفعل ذلك ووضع على كاهلي عبئاً آخر، والحقيقة استغربتُ كيف أن هذه المدونة وصلت إلى المرحلة الثانية على الرغم من أن الشبكة مليئة بمدونات مذهلة ذات محتوى خصب وعميق أخجل أن أضع تعليقاً فيها لضآلة ما أشعر به أمامها.
I was surprised to see my blog shortlisted in the BoBs for best Arabic blog, alongside Abdulsalam's blog, and found out through a comment here. I did not nominate myself but someone else did, placing a huge burden on my shoulders. I am surprised to see my blog get to this level when the Internet is full of amazing blogs, with rich content and deep thoughts, which make me ashamed to even leave a comment on them because of how minuscule I feel.
Having shaken off the initial shock, Medad comes up with a campaign agenda, with promises to his voters. They include:
Noaufal too has made promises should he win. He writes:
And Suad urges her readers to vote for her, and has some advice for them too:
Meanwhile, Tarek is shy about asking for votes. He tells his readers:
From the blogs, the campaigns have spilled over to Twitter and Facebook, with the nominated bloggers and their fan base urging readers to cast votes. Some bloggers have even designed and posted logos on their blogs, calling upon their readers to vote for them.
To cast you vote for any of the blogs nominated for the awards, click here.