Things move fast in Blogosphere, so fast that once something is announced, and a 'ripple of buzz' is created, it's already over; lest the blogging attention span is gone, or worse - the spammers arrive.

No sooner had Chicago-based Mark Ashley, of Upgrade Travel Better, announced (during the headline-grabbing, build up to the award-ceremony season for performing artists - The Oscars and Grammys) that he would create The Travvies....... than nominations had closed.

You had to travel there fast to make the list, or have a loyal fan with an ear to the ground to touchdown in time and nominate you.

The 2007 Travvies Timetable
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Announcement of intent: 'Any travel blog that existed in 2006 and that generated at least 52 posts in 2006 is open for consideration. The primary focus of blogs should be on some aspect of travel'.

One post a week would have made a travel site eligible.

Monday, February 5th, 2007
Nominations begin, from the general public; where readers could 'post their nominations for the appropriate category via the comments section of the post announcing that category'.

Monday, February 12th, 2007
Nominations are closed.

So What Happens Now?

'A panel of invited judges will investigate and select their top 3 selections in each category. The five blogs in each category that are most often chosen by the judges as finalists will be presented as the finalists for each respective category. Judges have been invited on the basis of their expertise in travel, media, and web culture. To prevent conflict of interest, no one who themselves writes a travel blog can serve as a judge. To prevent "tampering," the judges' names will be announced along with the finalists, not before'.

Finalists will be announced on February 21, and voting will begin immediately via an online poll.

Polling closes February 28 at 6pm, Chicago time (CST).
The winner in each category will be the finalist who receives the most votes from the general public.

Winners will be announced on March 2nd.

As there's often a lot of media speculation and comment on the merits of the performers nominated for 'Oscars' and 'Grammys', here at Travel Notes we'll be doing the same with the 2007 Travvies.

And the categories are......

Best Travel Blog:
'As the overall winner, this award will go to a blog whose travel-related writings have been consistently interesting, entertaining, useful, well-written, or otherwise worth spending time reading'.

Best Destination Blog:
'This award celebrates the best travel blog focusing on particular destinations — cities, countries, whatever. Quality writing and/or photography that make you want to book a flight to that location'.

Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog:
This award goes to a travel blog that provides news, commentary, advice, or general insight into the workings of travel. Unlike a destination blog, this blog is more practically minded.

Best Group-Written Travel Blog:
'This award celebrates travel blogs consistently written by two or more authors, regardless of subtopic'.

Best Single-Author Travel Blog:
This award celebrates the best travel blog writing by a single blogger. Again, the topic is open, as long as there is only one regular poster.

Best Photography on a Travel Blog:
'Some blogs focus more on the visuals than the writing. This award celebrates the best in visual media on a travel blog'.I know blog entries usually start with new posts at the top but as this is the introduction index it's posted, for effect, after the reviews.

The reviews will follow down from here in reverse order: so that we post the review you'll hopefully be reading last, first - that's if you read the whole review in a linear fashion.

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