Is the Nigeria Web Awards Credible Enough?
I just got the scoop yesterday about the so-called Nigeria Web Awards, so I thought it’d be nice to mention it here on StartupsNigeria.
The Nigeria Web Awards 2008 claims to be the National Approved Web site award program launched to honour Nigeria’s talented webmasters. The awards would name the Best Website in four industry categories, namely, Commercial Category, Entertainment Category, Community Category and Webmasters Honours.
Nominations and votes for best web site would come from interactive agencies and web site marketing departments in more than 20 states from around Nigeria.
Voting for the Nigeria Web Awards is said to have begun, but I couldn’t find an open voting system on the website. Over 300 verified nominations is said to have been recieved so far and this has been narrowed down to the 3 most-nominated sites and services in each category.
Every winner of this award would be provided with a web-embedded award to be placed on their web pages as a recognition of their achievement and credibility, which would be followed by an indoor interview with all the winning webmasters at four different television stations, namely, Sliverbird, AIT, Channels, and Galaxy, while winners that could not attend the event would be interview online in a virtual world.
The organizer of the award is the Nigeria International Technology, a professional organization for technology, innovation, and web development. Wait a minute, NIT??? Who really are they? Does anyone know them?
My Opinion
Firstly, I think this is a good move from the organisers, as this would encourage more web participation in the future. However, I feel that the awards does not cover several other categories of web awards as seen globally, such as that of Open Web Awards by Mashable, the Crunchies by TechCrunch, BloggersChoiceAwards, and many others.
Secondly, the awards has not been properly marketed on the web to encourage participation from web users and seems like the organisers want to use it as a campaign effort for their website design company.
Thirdly, I’m curious about the transparency and credibility of this award program as I couldn’t find an online voting system on the website. I’m also not sure what the criteria is for nomination. (I just recieved an email that I’ve been nominated, after I filled the form here. Below is a screenshot of the email I recieved.
Nominated for what exactly??? By who???
I’m hoping that the organizers could provide more details about the nomination process and at least we’ll be sure that the winners deserve the awards.
Update: Just recieved an email from one of the organizers who explained that due to the late process of the awards, the nominations were conducted indoors and posted online and that the votes comes from several web design agencies in nigeria . However, the next awards edition in 2009 will be an online voting logde where users will put in the votes and view their results in updates.
Also, Gobbleabba is not using NWA as a marketing tool, rather Gobbleabba stands as the public relations icon for NIT and NWA.
My next questions are: Why should Gobbleabba nominate themselves on the Most Impressive Website Design category? Isn’t it supposed to be an open voting system that allows users to vote for them, rather than vote themselves?
i think you got a reply to this blog
http://www.1afro.wordpress.com
@Daladi - Thanks for dropping by. I’ve read your take on the NWA and have responded on your blog. I like your solidarity;-)
we got same email.. i was just wondering… that!
lol…true saying…
Why do gobbleabba nominate themself…i will not be suprised if they win the catergory…lol
@Uche - I can see that you’re number 1 on the list. Good luck!:-)
@Temi - Even Mashable or TechCrunch has never nominated themselves for any awards.
Ok so what’s all this fraud going on here? who is http://1afro.wordpress.com/ ? And why would any credible blogger open a new blog today and his first post will be about these awards? And how can web award nominations be made by web agencies? Are u kidding me?
http://1afro.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/why-doubt-nigeria-web-awards/
Does gobbleabba think everyone is stupid? So they’re also doing anonymous blog promotion now? Is this desperation? I guess they have got Loy talking about them so their scam is working. Are these guys high school kids?
From their post:
filed under Uncategorized tagged gobbleabba, nigeria web awards, nigeria webmasters, startups naija, web award nigeria
@Ope - I think your last question might provide an answer to this puzzle.
Loy why are you giving these jokers publicity. That’s exactly what they’re after.
most of these guys claiming to give awards have no idea what the internet is or what all these technologies can do and they want to give awards ? at least nigerians are into size and popularity so nairaland and mtn carry go ! . others sites well na who donate pass for the awards na im go carry the mantle waka go
i see so many social networking sites from nigeria claiming huge audiences . right now nanaija.com claims they have 1000 plus members online right now ! hmmmm maybe they will get a yahooze award for most members online from nigeria at 4.44am na money dem dey share ! lol !
As much as a Nigeria Web Awards is a good initiative, the industry needs credible awards and to just announce the awards with nominations already made and no way for the public to be involved in the process doesn’t look good. Also, the aim here shouldn’t be for self promotion, but for the common good of the Nigerian web industry.
Also these guys need to read up on other awards’ eligibility criteria. You can’t be a web design agency and be involved with the nominations process and on top of that be nominated yourselves. Not ethical at all.
@Temi above, I was suprised at seeing that and was like… “i never wrote that comment”…lol. I guess there’s other Temi’s around here.
In an ideal scenario, the Nigerian Web awards should be conducted by an INDEPENDENT body. I see NIT is behind this but there isn’t even any information on NIT anywhere on the internet. Is NIT the same as GobbleAbba? We dont know. The first ever mention of NIT anywhere on the internet was on the awards site and here.
http://www.google.com/search?q=“nigeria+international+technology” . So we have an invisible organization conducting the Nigeria Web Awards, with the only visible front being a web design agency. Sigh.
Web design agencies can be sponsors, but can’t be directly involved with the awards. And if they do happen to be involved, should not be eligible for nomination. And it looks even worse to have the awards website hosted under a web design agency’s domain. I cringed when I saw that.
Let’s please and please not create a public source of ridicule in the Nigerian internet industry, we’re behind enough. I bet if I wasn’t Nigerian and I saw this I’d laugh.
Temi - Thanks for dropping by. You’ve just spoken my mind. Come to think of it, what would be the first reaction of international web geeks when they see what a mess a Nigerian Web Awards is without credibility.
That doesn’t speak much good of our web image and reputation which we’re already striving to change. Like Temi above said, web design agencies should not be eligible for nomination, but could be judges.
I could have just folded my arms and watch, but I couldn’t stand the shame and ridicule this would bring to our emerging web industry. Not that Im criticising the awards, but the process is messed up. PERIOD!
@Edoman - It might seem like I’m giving them exposure, but would it be better to allow them create a bad exposure of the Nigeria Web Industry?
Don’t worry, they’ll thank me for it:-)
Well, award is really welcome development,
but process is what most of the guys is against.
I have not heard of it till now.
Let see how it goes, if it will ever be.
Am yet to find a praise for this award
Anyways, everyone got his or her own problem, i will rather focus on how to get myself noticed, rather than sitting and chatting about an already developed web agency. I got no problem with Gobbleabba, they are established, people are just chatting out of portion. Everyone is calling them scam, tell me, How many of you stay honest to get what you want.
This is modern world, you find every means to get noticed or you die under the seat belt. You all disappoint me, every one comparing a nigeria stuff to british stuffs. If only you live among them, you will know they pretend and you will find out how desperate they get when they need something. See this is a nigerian stuffs, don’t hate appreciate. Gobbleabba is just a web agency like everyone esle, they are striving hard to make a difference in nigeria, you all are picking on them. Anyways, they got the attention they need, and in a few years time, the name NWA will be as huge as OBAMA, what you all don’t know is that its starts from here, and its starting now.
Well, as far as i am concern, i have not found a link between NIT and Gobbleabba, according to startups nigeria, LOY said that Gobbleabba stands as a public relation icon, not one of them. Do you know the meaning of Public Relation Icon? Check your dictionary !! Anyways, am not bothered, Gobbleabba is not my father’s website nor my friend’s but note that the competition is on in nigeria, now that the name Gobbleabba is known. Tighten your seat belt mates, because Abba is about to out turn you all, have you ever wonder how much praise they will get if they table this awards? the name Nigeria in any thing is huge, the government will definitely approve this.
Nominate or Not, the idea of all this is to get nigerian webmasters support and not a fight, Gobbleabba is a web agency trying hard to beat the credit crunch, and i must say they are gettin there, with this audience and google track i am gettin about them. Feel free to copy this note and paste anywhere, it is free.
@Demilade - You said: “Gobbleabba is just a web agency like everyone esle, they are striving hard to make a difference in nigeria, you all are picking on them.”
What difference??? Making the world see Nigeria with contempt? Do you know exactly what an awards without credibility means for the Nigeria web industry? Gimme a break!
Again, “according to startups nigeria, LOY said that Gobbleabba stands as a public relation icon, not one of them. Do you know the meaning of Public Relation Icon?”
You’re not quoting me here, friend. I was quoting what one of the Goggleabba guys said in an email sent to me.
I think you need to swallow your pride and accept the fact that the NWA process is messed up. Not the concept, but the process. So, if you’re the one masterminding the awards, you and your guys need to regroup and seek some counselling.
Quoting Demilade: “This is modern world, you find every means to get noticed or you die under the seat belt.”
Wow. Where did ethics go.
Hmmm. so this gist has come this far. well you can become more aware of the controversy that grows each time it evolves. the NWA site has been changed from the previous controversial one. but have a look at the categories and winners from this other discussion
http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-208738.0.html
It seems to moi Demilade is in cahoot with the organizers to spread mediocre work
Wow,Nigerian web awards? abeg leave matter! this people are making fun of us on the 2.0 scene.llol! its a laudable project .but organized by whom and who are the nominees and who nominated them! abegi!!! Lets all sit down locally & internationally and push a good initiative into the light not scammin people with multiple ids lOL! Loy u are baba & Temi nicely said.lets make things happen in the 2.0 for 2.0.0.9! Papa Qube was here!
The Rats play when the Cat is not around…
If we simply blog our way to bliss how can we achieve the notable, the web awards was just a virgin opportunity that got picked up by the wrong hands. If we as a community of enlightened individuals come up with a industry-standard framework, one that aims at best practices. then we can begin to aim for the stars, (maybe we’ll hit the moon… still better than hitting the dust) The Internet has been the most popular medium thru which Nigeria (and Nigerians) is smeared internationally, very little PR impact is felt when Financial Institutions engage in million dollar projects deemed internationally relevant, but when one boy in Surulere nets $5,000 dollars from a SCAM, CNN and TIME prints it and it is breaking news for days. Let us face it, The Web Design Industry needs not just credibility, but standards. A properly instituted, funded and independent Web Awards for Nigeria will do a whole lot, than banks throwing up Adverts in Europe and America for God knows what-kind-of PR