A silver ASBPE award for "Interactive Community"

Earlier this week in Kansas City, journalists from all over the country gathered for the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) national awards ceremony. Winning an "Azbee" is a big deal for business-oriented publications and trade magazines, and, increasingly, the websites that they operate. For the 2008 competition, there were 2,300 entries for 57 categories. My old employer, Computerworld, has done very well in the "Azbee" awards over the years, and this year was no different -- it won 15 awards total, including "Web site of the Year" and six other golds.

After the conference, I found out that I was named in the ASBPE silver award for "Interactive Community," which was given to Shark Bait -- the online community that I conceptualized and helped develop and launch in early 2007. The gold went to BusinessWeek, and the bronze to Macworld.

Being named on the silver was a totally unexpected honor, not only because I haven't worked at Computerworld since the beginning of this year, but also because day-to-day management of the site is now conducted by my former colleague (and Gamebits founder) Ken Gagne, who was also named in the award. Still, the nominations were submitted some time ago and they cover 2007, and during the first few months of 2007 I really lived and breathed Shark Bait. It was a great experience working on the minisite with some very talented editorial, business development, and technology staff at Computerworld, and, of course, the members of the community. While we did a lot to design and incorporate features that attracted readers and boosted engagement, it's the members of the community who ultimately make Shark Bait such a special place.

You can see the full list of 2008 ASBPE award winners here (PDF)