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Five Things I Learned Judging and Hanging Out at The Shorty Awards

By Sree Sreenivasan | March 29, 2011 7:30pm
Some of the winners and finalists - and sponsors - of the third annual Shorty Awards
Some of the winners and finalists - and sponsors - of the third annual Shorty Awards
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By Sree Sreenivasan

DNAinfo Contributing Columnist

Only in a Twitter contest would a mayor of a New Jersey city beat out a U.S. president. But then we are talking about the Shorty Awards, which honors excellence - such as it is - on Twitter and other social networks.  

That’s how it came to be that on Monday night at the Times Center in Midtown, @CoryBooker defeated @BarackObama. Booker, the high-profile mayor of Newark, won in the "Government" category, coming out ahead of Obama’s account. Booker does his own tweeting, while several people manage the Obama account. While some people have complained that Obama uses "ghost-tweeters," I think that's the way it should be - he's got a country to run and dealing with Twitter and other social networks is an unnecessary distraction.

Booker, who has become a celebrity in part because of his use of social media, was mobbed at the end of the ceremony, which also featured actual celebrities. @RealKiefer - that's Kiefer Sutherland, @StillerAndMeara (comedy old-timers Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who have found new fans via their weekly two-minute web videos) and @Aasif_Mandvi (Aasif Mandvi, one of the correspondents of "The Daily Show" and the night’s emcee).

Last year, I shared some lessons about how journalists can use Twitter for breaking news, based on time I spent with @JKrums (Janis Krums), Shorty winner for "Real-time Picture of the Year." He took the famous photo of the US Airways plane sitting in the Hudson River (you can see the photo in the column about Krums).

I’ve been a judge for two years at the Shortys, along with folks like MC Hammer and Alyssa Milano (let's just say my inner 17-year-old was happy) and here are some other things I’ve learned.

1. Twitter is more international ever before.  Most Americans end up following other Americans on Twitter, but it’s a truly international experience. Winners, finalists and nominees came from dozens of countries, with the most popular being those in countries with large presences on Twitter, including Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea. For instance, one of the winners in the "Politics" category was @Silva_Marina, a popular environmentalist and former minister in Brazil. Attending all the way from Australia was @Yiying Lu, who won a Shorty two years ago for creating the "Fail Whale," which shows up when Twitter is over capacity.

2. All kinds of professions are represented on Twitter. You tend to think Twitter is popular among certain professions - authors, journalists, actors, musicians - folks who have a message they want to get out. But I was pleasantly surprised to meet @MatthewBrowning, a registered nurse who was a finalist in the "Nurse" category (which was sponsored by the "Nurse Jackie" series on Showtime). If you spend time going through all the winners and finalists, you will find other professions you didn’t think were on Twitter.

3. More kinds of organizations are getting involved with social media. Many of the sponsors of the Shortys are companies you might expect - Nokia; PepsiCo, Showtime. But also involved as sponsors: the Knight Foundation, a major journalism nonprofit that supports a lot of digital initiatives; and The Macallan brand of single-malt whiskey. Among the winners this year: @BlackBerrryHelp - BlackBerry’s customer service line; and @TrevorProject - a nonprofit dedicated to preventing suicide among gay, lesbian and transgendered youth. All of these companies reflect the wide range of businesses and nonprofit orgs on Twitter. We’ll be seeing even more kinds getting involved with social media in the months ahead.

4. Twitter can be used as a teaching tool - and not just by teachers. The person I was most pleased to meet was @Astro_Wheels (Col. Douglas Wheelock), a NASA astronaut who commanded the International Space Station last year. During his most recent journey in space, he tweeted his activities and became the first person to check-in on Foursquare from above the earth. He didn’t win Foursquare Mayor of the Year and NASA didn’t win the "Science" category, but he told me that he is convinced of the power of social media to teach people of all ages. NASA is smart to use folks like him to bring attention to its work, especially as it faces cuts in its budget and D.C. officials curtail its ambition.

5. The more unusual stuff isn’t necessarily in the "Weird" category. Of course, I knew that already, especially after one of last year’s winners was @DoWhatITellYou, a llama telling its followers what to do. But judging the awards means exposure to a stunning range of Twitter feeds and people with the time to man them. Two unusual feeds worth noting - at different ends of the taste spectrum. @TreatWomenRight, a 15-year-old boy from Atlanta who tweets about how to treat women better and has 200,000-plus followers. I don’t usually get my relationship advice from 15-year-olds, but meeting him, his sister, and his mom, I could tell that he has good intentions and that if even a few other young men are inspired to treat women better, it’s worth it. The other: @EpicMealTime, a group of men who get together and create what they call "epic meals" - usually involving bacon and at least 40,000 calories. Here’s a video of a Thanksgiving meal featuring a quail stuffed cornish game hen in a duck stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a pig with many layers of bacon. Calorie count: 70,000. You may feel much better about your own meal choices - or you may never eat again.

Here's Conan O'Brien's hilarious video acceptance speech for "Lifetime Achievement."

You can see an archive of the ceremony via Livestream.

And to get a sense of the party, see these photos: Guest of a Guest and WireImage

What do YOU think? Post your comments via Facebook below or via Twitter @sree.

Sree Sreenivasan, a journalism professor at Columbia Journalism School, writes about media and technology each week in DNAinfo.com.