Blogger’s block

In this day and age the availability of information is no longer confined to that which is physical. The concept of a library has been changing for some time now. Now one does not need to travel physically to a destination. One does not need to stroll through the aisle and search for books. One needs to only connect to the World Wide Web and the world of information opens up to you immediately. It is an emancipation of the mind conceived by the mind and a freedom of opinion. It is an endless digital library, expanding forever while humans live.

For a long time now individuals have been blogging about opinions and facts that can be accessed by visitors of the World Wide Web. This futuristic cyber tool is now becoming a dominant source of information.

Daily News learns that the Nelum Yaya Foundation is interested in giving recognition to individual bloggers for their well- earned innovative opinions and contents.

So for the third consecutive year on March 25, The Nelum Yaya Blog Awards Festival 2016 will be held.

Nelum Yaya Blog Awards Festival has been created to recognize true viral style and creative excellence across a variety of 21 main awards including –

q Best Blog Awards (Three awards – first, second and third places for Sinhala/Tamil/ English)

q Blogs that have been operating under various topics – Education, History, Topical Discussion, short stories, political, translation, comedy, fiction, scientific fiction, science and technology, music, travel and photography, poetry and literature reviews.

The Nelum Yaya Blog Awards Festival is organized to promote and highlight the importance of blogging. The first Nelum Yaya Blog Awards Festival was launched in 2014.

“When Nelum Yaya Foundation started the Blog Festival, there were no sponsors and we had to pay out of our own pockets. Now there are a few sponsors for the Blog Awards. Nelum Yaya Foundation is under Lanka News Web. It began as a charitable entity under Lanka News Web, receiving no help from any external source.

Nelum Yaya Foundation continue to conduct charitable activities. The Blog Festival is not for the sake of giving awards, it is to help the poor,” said Lanka News Web, Kumudini Wijayawardhana.

Seasoned and experienced political blogger Ajith Parakum Jayasinghe a previous award winner, said that blogging has nothing to do with profit and is done not for profit. It is a social entity.

“Through the World Wide Web one has the opportunity to share ones thoughts and opinions. This is the right of an individual. During the last decade in Sri Lanka blogging has been used to great effect. In that decade blogging has evolved. Information technology has changed at a rapid rate. And blogging has taken on a wider meaning. Twitter is one good example and very popular elsewhere in the world.

There are also so many bloggers that cannot be involved in this festival. Also doing a festival like this is not easy task. I come from a village background. I am a professional blogger. I feel that we have to keep up with the changing world and update ourselves. Anyone can start up a blog, it is simple.

I must say that, there are challenges that come with being a professional blogger or someone who does it out of social responsibility. Because it takes effort and there are disappointments.

So we have to encourage bloggers,” said Jayasinghe Jayasinghe stressed the need for recognition in this field and that such festivals are important.

For the Nelum Yaya Blog Awards Festival 2016, blog posts that have been published during the period of January 1 to December 31, 2016, will be considered, along with the blogs and blog posts which have been shortlisted by the Sri Lanka Bloggers Association.

The shortlisted blogs and blog posts will be judged by an independent panel of judges and finalize the winners of the year under above mentioned categories.

The awards festival will be held on March 25, at Water’s Edge, Baththaramulla from 3 pm to 7 pm.