NASA among winners at first Twitter awards
NASA has been honored for its use of Twitter in the Mars lander project. It was among 26 winners in the first Shorty awards to recognize creative and effective use of the microblogging site.
NASA was the winner in the science category, taking the prize for a series of 600 posts (or tweets in Twitter-speak) about the Mars Phoenix Lander’s 152-day life exploring the planet’s north polar region.
Another notable winner was Carri Bugbee who triumph in the advertising category was particularly apt. Not only did she take the honor for a series of in-character posts to promote a television show, but the character was Peggy Olson from advertising drama Mad Men.
Despite the nature of the awards, the ceremony took place as a live event in New York hosted by CNN’s Rick Sanchez with MC Hammer among those presenting individual awards. According to the New York Times, both men reportedly struggled to be heard above a crowd that emitted the stream of chatter usually seen on Twitter itself.
It wasn’t just audible noise, however. A large screen displayed Twitter messages sent by both those in attendance and those following online, creating a bizarre mixture of commentary on the category winners and feedback on the event catering.
Similar to the way winners of the Webby Awards are limited to five-word acceptance speech, Shorty winners had to keep their acceptances to 140 character or less – the limit for individual messages on Twitter.
Twitter itself has no involvement in the awards and doesn’t endorse them. The ceremony was organised by Sawhorse Media, a firm which also runs a spoof blogs site and a site offering one-line music reviews. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a non-profit group designed to support journalism, financed the ceremony and paid for winners to travel to New York.
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February 13th, 2009
We won the shorty awards for #business.
We are honored and humbled we won. We are on twitter to connect open, honestly & transparently to help and grow relationships.
Being nominated by our followers is prize enough to know we are making a difference.
We mainly tweet pet lovers, but also bloggers, tech ppl, business ppl, and all ppl. We’ve met the best ppl on twitter and value our relationships.
Twitter is about community, and it’s fun.
-Adam, Wendy & Lola (woof woof)
twitter.com/pawluxury
February 16th, 2009
Thanks for mentioning me in your post! The Shorty Awards were big fun — definitely the place to meet the “who’s who” of tweeters. And a sign that Twitter has really come into its own as a marketing and communications platform.
Unfortunately, my name is misspelled in your story. That no doubt, began, when the NY Times misspelled it. :-)
Oh well, you know what they say about publicity!
@CarriBugbee AKA @PeggyOlson