Sour-tasting awards

I like awards; I like being able to call myself an award-winning journalist. And I imagine this is why companies enter - or like being entered - into competitions.

I guess it dates back to school days, when the accolade of being called onto stage to receive "most promising history pundit" of the year was, while nerdish, somewhat pleasing.

Those awards were, and I guess still are, based on pure merit. There was no tinge of unfair advantage, or of parents bribing teachers to make their little darlings look good; it was all based on performance, and couldn't really be argued with.

That's just the thing with awards. They need to be bias-free to have any meaning in a world gone mad - in a world where no one is apparently above currying favour with the next-pres-to-be.

My award - new journalist of the year at the Telkom awards a few years ago - is to my mind, free of any smears of corruption or bribery. So, I'm proud to tell people that I once received such an accolade.

Would this wipe out the chance of a one-man-band being touted all over as IT's next best thing?

Nicola Mawson, senior journalist, ITWeb

This is not always the case. Two recent awards - which we will leave anonymous because it's the principle of the matter - caused quite a bit of heated conversation in the newsroom.

The thing about journalism is rumours are often heard, and often unsubstantiated, but enough to make us wonder. Generally, there is not enough proof to bring them to the public's attention, at least not without being sued.

The mere suggestion of bias or sponsorship is enough to make us view awards with suspicion. And that's how it should be.

Over and above the smear of winning a tainted award is the question of whether the title itself is deserved. There are many worthy companies and individuals in SA that warrant such honours. The name Mark Shuttleworth springs to mind here.

It is these companies and people who lose out when awards are wrongly handed out - amid all the backslapping and congratulations, the real winners are forgotten.

Granted, awards are tricky things. Is it easier to simply invite entries and then pick the person or organisation that managed to enter or nominate itself most?

Or maybe the industry is at fault. If too few people - and here I count journalists for there are awards that we should take part in too - bother entering, what are the organisers to do?

Do they pick the best of a bad bunch? Or should they in good faith scrap the entire category or award?

Are false accolades any way to spur a culture of innovation and development, making SA globally competitive and wiping out the legacy of unemployment and poverty?

Should there, instead, be some sort of nominations board that includes industry leaders deciding who should and should not be entered?

Would this wipe out the chance of a one-man-band being touted all over as IT's next best thing? Would it put a stop to a struggling company, dogged by resignations, being hailed for its successes, and halt subsidiaries of the same group being on a seemingly endless winning streak?

Editor's note: The annual IT Personality of the Year award, run by ITWeb under the auspices of the CSSA, is known for its fairness as it relies on an open nomination process from the ICT industry at large. The nominations are then whittled down by a public voting and judging process, ensuring that the cream of the IT crop is selected each year.