InFomentation

Now that I know about the Shorty Awards, I am spending a little time this morning thinking who I want to nominate in different categories, and what my criteria is.

I am finding that I like best the Twitterers that are smart (but I won’t follow you if you’re not, so I guess that goes without saying) have useful and/or entertaining content, and who don’t overuse auto-feeds. I like to see a little personality come through. Personal and practical, and any combination thereof. And for my vote, it helps if you have a sense of humor and that you occasionally interact with me (not to be too self-absorbed about it).

I might suggest to the shorty awards that they create a couple of categories:

• Positivity
• Writing
• Community Building
• Citizen Journalism (which I suppose could be lumped in w/ news, but the main stream news outlets are *very* different.)
• Activism
• Social Change
• Reference and Libraries
• Emergency Response
• Creativity
• Television

If these categories existed, I would nominate the following Twetters:

• pattidigh for Writing and Positivity
• NurtureGirl for Positivity and Social Change
• TheUptake for Citizen Journalism and Social Change
• JoinTheImpact for Activism
• AdBusters for Activism, Creativity, and Social Change
• NetSquared for Community Building and Creativity
• K.G. Schneider for Reference and Librarians
• hurricaneike for Emergency Response
• maddow for Television

There are others who I think are great for these categories (and the categories the Shorty Awards have already established), too. If you want to more Twitter feeds that I think are worth following, check it out.

I might also suggest getting rid of the Personal category because it’s a little too mushy. And from what I can tell from the nominees that I checked out in that category, all of them would fit into another category.

I think the Shorty Awards are a great idea to inspire Tweeters to think about their content and how they are using Twitter. I know that it has got me thinking! I find myself nominating people using criteria that I use for my own tweets. I look forward to seeing who wins, and I look forward to finding more interesting people to follow.