Everyone who attends will receive an award, and everyone's a presenter, making the event more of a party than a PodTech egofest. Gary Vaynerchuck of WineLibraryTV will cohost the event scheduled for November 30 somewhere in Los Angeles. Sounds all right to me. If you're going to celebrate loser-generated content, the least you can do is not have it run by a loser-generated company.

• The spoils of failure: PodTech is announcing that they recently secured new funding. Not exactly. What I hear is that PodTech partner National Banana is shutting down. Comedy writer Jerry Zucker is abandoning the site to work on film projects. As a result, some funding that went to this unfunny video site is now going to PodTech.
• Loren Feldman erased: PodTech show host Loren Feldman has long been an oasis of raw, offensive refreshment in the network's sea of boring interview pieces. He also gave me what-for when I slammed PodTech. So why has this company man been scrubbed not only from the front page, but also the archives? One rumor is that sponsor Seagate took offense at his style (for instance, his video about me calls me a hooker and participates in a comment thread about me, uh, servicing men) and ordered PodTech to erase him. But you can still find Feldman in a search. [While Loren was scrubbed from the front page, it turns out he's still in a back section. See the comments for an update.]
• And by "yours" we mean "ours": Founder Furrier announced yesterday that PodTech's annual "Vloggies" awards ceremony for videobloggers will be "open" this year. He reprints a public message he sent to "Ken Nichols" (that would be Kent Nichols, co-creator of the Ask a Ninja video series, who had already corrected Furrier about his name that morning). What Furrier doesn't reprint is a long argument in the videoblogger Yahoo group; Kent had discovered that PodTech registered "Vloggies" as a trademark shortly before firing Irina Slutsky, a videoblogger who organized and hosted the first Vloggies ceremony in 2006. So by "open," Furrier means he's "open" to someone else footing the bill.
• Those who don't get fired, quit: It's rumored that one PodTech correspondent, Matt Kelly, is frustrated with the site and pitching his work elsewhere.
• It wasn't about the money: After over four months of nagging and public argument, photographer Lan Bui has finally gotten PodTech to pay for the photo PodTech stole from him for a kiosk display.
• And for him, that's before breakfast: Where does Furrier find the time to blog and argue with his many malcontents? Lord knows he's not working all day. One videoblogging team says Furrier managed to miss four conference calls.
• A kick to the privates: PodTech's next move is privacy; the company is trying to organize some seminars since they've heard privacy is the Next Big Topic. Word is they want Google involved; what's the over-under on that happening?

Running outta Vloggies, all true...they played a game of "who is most important", had some list...the people Podtech wanted for their network got them first. Least that was John Furrier's reasoning.

And yes, they then DID get some more, yes.....

But then they put Valerie [Cunningham, PodTech press contact] in charge, Miss Pretty but 10-Second-Attention Span, and I have no doubt she will stick to her guns, saying yes she sent them. She drops more balls than anything, plus it was during the whole move to Page Mill Road, and they were sitting in a box untouched for eons. I was shouldn't those be mailed? But poorly run is right, it was someone else's responsibility, so they remained untouched, while Valerie was off partying, calling it Marketing.

So now it blows up, and they have them left over, insisting they did send them and have more.

Our collaboration called Node 666 won about 17 people a Vloggie. PodTech said they would mail Vloggies to everyone who contributed to the collaboration, but they didn't. I just got an e-mail today from Steve Garfield wondering where his Vloggie is.

Their excuse was that they ran out of Vloggies at the awards ceremony and would have to have more made in order to send them.

No such follow up was made.

Brilliant. With PodTech losing this much credibility, I know I'm one vlogger who won't bother coming to its awards show this year. Disappointing, really; last year's event seemed so fun before this look behind the scenes.

Ze Frank had won two Vloggie awards last year. He couldn't make it to the ceremony, but he had a fan act as his envoy. PodTech told him they'd mail his awards.

PodTech wanted Ze Frank to host this year. He wasn't interested, but he did ask what happened to the awards — he'd never gotten them in the mail. Their response: "We ran out."

That's a shame; those awards fetch over $500 on eBay.

Update: Both PodTech boss John Furrier and Ze Frank say the story's false. Erik Gavriluk, who built the site behind Ze's show (and ZeFrank.org), was the story's source; despite Ze and John's reaction, he insists it's all true. File this under, I don't know, dubious?

(Photo by Scott Beale)

Webby Awards
Years held: 10
The deciders: Panel; "People's Voice" awarded by popular vote
Notoriety: 4/5
Legitimacy: 4/5

The granddaddy of web awards was first handed out by The Web magazine and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain in 1996. The ceremonies expanded and contracted with a two-year lag after the boom and bust: two years after filling San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in 2001, the event was cancelled in 2003.

It's still the biggest web award and possibly the only one that can pull responses from A-listers. Last year, the Daily Show's Rob Corddry hosted in New York. Lifetime Achievement recipient Prince gave his five-word acceptance speech: "Everything you think is true." A mix of progressive and mainstream nominees shows that the Webbys are still relevant. But what with the celebs and the $250 entry fee, this show feels too slick.

Bloggies
Years held: 6
The deciders: Panel narrows field of public nominations; public elects winners
Notoriety: 3/5
Legitimacy: 3/5

The most famous blog awards, the Bloggies are presented at Austin's annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival. Categories include regions, topics, and specialties (like "best designed").

One measure of an award's legitimacy is how many winners come to claim it. On that count, the Bloggies are failing as the novelty of winning decreases. Let's face it; there are too many great bloggers who feel higher-profile than this award show.

It doesn't help that the physical award is a laser-jetted certificate and twenty bucks, or that high-traffic pro blogs like Gawker Media's Lifehacker have taken over the victories. Still, absent any other slickly presented blog awards, the Bloggies will remain the blog equivalent of the Webby Awards.

SXSW Web Awards
Years held: 10
The deciders: Panel, with a People's Choice award
Notoriety: 2/5
Legitimacy: 2/5

This Adobe-sponsored award show, also held at SXSW, hands out solid prizes (this year's Best of Show winner received a travel package for next year's SXSW, including the week-long music festival). But despite a spirited MC performance by public speaker and vlogger Ze Frank, the awards felt like an also-ran as always. The categories seem hacked together, the ceremony squeezed between too many other enticing events. As part of SXSW, it won't die out, but it'll never be an arbiter of online prestige.

The Vloggies
Years held: 1
The deciders: Panel
Notoriety: 3/5
Legitimacy: 4/5

PodTech.net hasn't done anything special in the fields of podcasting and videoblogging. But the tech show network puts on one hell of an awards show. This fall's Vloggies awarded not just popular shows like Andrew Baron's Rocketboom but also newcomers. The favorite show was the documentary Alive in Baghdad. By recognizing this serious, moving show about the people of wartime Iraq, the Vloggies earned legitimacy; by filling San Francisco's Swedish American Hall with nominees and fans, the ceremony earned status. Expect these awards to get more attention as vlogging matures.

Nick Douglas writes regularly for Valleywag and talks to himself on his daily show, Look Shiny.

• Overheard Podtech founder John Furrier (pictured) saying a few things at the Vloggies, an award show organized by his company: For example, "Vloggercon was too nerdy." That's a little less respect than he paid this summer's videoblogger conference when he went on stage. But I can't recall which vlogger he called "a hottie" at the afterparty. [Photo by JD Lasica]
• Today's Pictures in Slate: Cubicle drones in India's Silicon Valley. [
• Play buzzword bingo at this week's Web 2.0 conference with this card. After the conference, send completed cards to tips@valleywag.com to enter Valleywag's hall of fame. [Duck9]
• Who got the $131 million stock "gift" that Google co-founder Larry Page registered with the SEC? Maybe Larry himself. [Mercury News]
• Best headline in tech news this week: "Silicone cleavage bounces back." [Wired News]
• Techie legend #1: the data server used as a sawhorse. [Daily WTF]
• Techie legend #2: "Just remember, every time a Gaim user sends someone a file by dragging it into a conversation window, it's because I lost my wallet." [Duncan Mac-Vicar]

Click To Play

And for more textual coverage, read a review from the point of view of the duck — the costumed Ze Frank fan who represented the vlogger at the show.

"I thought all these egos would be bouncing off of each other," said Marianne from Treasure Island, "but this has been so warm and supportive. It's not about awards, it's more about celebrating new technologies." She was referring to the Vloggies, held Saturday night at the Swedish American Hall, and she was right about the atmosphere.

Going into this videoblog award show, I braced myself for an evening of cinematic navel-gazing, expecting clip after clip of disembodied faces staring into the camera, focused on their own reflection in the lens instead of communicating to an audience. I was pleasantly surprised. To me, the Vloggies clearly illustrated the varied world of internet video and, in a way, brought rationality to a medium easily construed as ridiculous.

On the other hand, Marianne was dressed as a fluffy yellow duck.

Jerry Zucker: "You like these jokes? I got a hundred more that we cut from "Naked Gun 33 1/3." [Laughing Squid]

In a sign of the vlogosphere's influence, actual famous people attended the show. Jerry Zucker, creator of Airplane! and The Naked Gun opened the night with a great speech (recorded here) about the beginning of his moviemaking career, drawing parallels to the world of vlogging. Daniel McVicar from The Bold and the Beautiful (and the McVlog) and Irina Slutsky from the vlog Geek Entertainment Television (who also organized the event for podcast company PodTech) very capably co-hosted the red-carpet affair.

Daniel McVicar shows his "doh" face while Irina Slutsky spies a cute guy in the audience. [Laughing Squid]

The usual group of internet celebrities showed up in support, including Scoble Show namesake Robert Scoble and Diggnation vlogger (and digg.com founder) Kevin Rose. Conspicuously absent from the ceremony were a few familiar Vlogerati, like ex-Rocketboom queen Amanda Cogdon and Favorite Male Vlogger Ze Frank (who sent Marianne the duck in his stead).

Big check, little prize. [Laughing Squid]

Alive in Baghdad was the big winner. This fantastic site - which takes a look at daily life in a war zone through interviews with Iraqi citizens - won a total of 7 Vloggies, including Judges' Favorite Vlog. Along with Josh Wolf, People's Choice winner for Favorite Male Vlogger, Alive in Baghdad demonstrates the capacity for internet videos to go beyond entertainment into true journalistic inquiry. In honor of its win, the Intel Corporation presented vlogger Brian Conley with a scant $2,000. It was enough to fund one Intel Core2Duo laptop, true, but the ridiculous size of the novelty check made the donation look meager in comparison. Given the state of the Iraqi power supply, I hope that Intel can cough up, at the very least, a solar battery charger and satellite internet connection, and throw in a couple flak jackets for the journalists.

Ask a Ninja co-creator Kent Nichols shows off his unstoppable "double-fisted statues" maneuver. [Thomas Hawk]

Slight snafus haunted the night. The audio went out on Ze Frank's taped acceptance speech and the dubbing was delayed all night, making every video look like a 1970s kung-fu movie. Patrons at the open bar talked over Brian Conley's moving speech, and an overabundance of hungry party guests picked over scant appetizers at the afterparty at Café du Nord. On the whole, however, the hosts and presenters kept the show moving and the crowd entertained. One person at the mike even offered to tap dance for the audience when a clip refused to play.

Andrew Baron tries to show the ducky what traffic really means. [Chuckumentary]

One thing that struck me as odd: Andrew Baron, the producer of Rocketboom, accepted the Judge's Favorite News Vlog with a dark-haired beauty by his side - curiously, Rocketboom host Joanne Colan was back in New York working on some "TV stuff." Baron won the Ego Prize of the night for invoking Woody Allen in a condescending speech that managed to accept the honor while assuring the audience that he was really superior to all this nerdy stuff. Later on, he continued his pissing contest with Ze Frank by pretending to vanquish Marianne the duck in a tasteless photo op.

Valleywag party score: This event's ready for its close-up.

The "Vloggies" re-used statuettes from the "Goatses." [Laughing Squid]

Unless noted, photos are by Scott Beale of Laughing Squid. See his photo gallery: The Vloggies: Photo gallery [Laughing Squid]
Also see Thomas Hawk's gallery: Photos from the 2006 Vloggies [Zooomr]

• Borat's movie premieres tonight! Check your local listings for screens and showtimes. The over/under on when the whole film will be available on YouTube? About a day.
• If you prefer your former Soviets in 3-D, check out Vloggies host Irina Slutsky at the Vloggie Pre-Party, 8pm at SF's House of Shields.

Saturday

• SuperHappyDevHouse 13 is all the way down in Los Gatos, but the trip is worth it for the all-day, all-night session of coding (or writing Chapter 1 for National Novel Writing Month).
• The Vloggies are finally here! Cause...cause you've been waiting for them, right? Come snicker at those silly amateur videobloggers, since in your heart you know you could do better. You know, if you ever bothered.

Sunday

• Mashups are fun until the lawyers step in. Catch the EFF & Calabash Music Mixer at 8pm at SF's Little Baobab.