The Shorty Awards, also known as the Shorties, are an awards event that honors top short-form content creators on the micro-blogging

Micro-blogging

Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...

 website Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

. The awards have primarily been sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American private, non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts....

, and are organized by the co-founders of the Brooklyn-based startup company Sawhorse Media. Since their creation in 2008, the awards have expanded to recognize content creation on other social networking sites, including Tumblr, Foursquare, and Facebook.

First Annual Awards

The awards were created in 2008 by tech entrepreneurs Greg Galant, Adam Varga, and Lee Semel of Sawhorse Media. They invited Twitter account holders to nominate the best twitterers in general categories such as humor, news, food, and design. Winners were chosen by than 30,000 twitterers during the voting period. The founders of Twitter first heard about the awards after the contest had gotten underway, and expressed support for it.

The first Shorty Awards ceremony was held on February 11, 2009, at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, New York. Approximately 300 people attended the event. The event was hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez

Rick Sanchez

Ricardo León "Rick" Sánchez de Reinaldo , known professionally as Rick Sanchez, is a Cuban-American journalist, author and former TV news anchor...

 and featured in-person guest appearances by prominent Twitter users MC Hammer

MC Hammer

Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...

 and Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is a video blogger, co-owner and director of operations of a wine retail store, and an author and public speaker on the subjects of social media, brand building and e-commerce. Vaynerchuk immigrated to the U.S...

 and a video appearance by Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal , nicknamed "Shaq" , is a former American professional basketball player. Standing tall and weighing , he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA...

. The awards, which were voted on by Twitter users, were distributed in 26 categories. At the ceremony, the true identity of advertising category winner @PeggyOlson was revealed to be Carri Bugbee, owner of the public relations company Big Deal PR in Portland, Oregon.

2009 Winners By Category

Advertising: Peggy Olson, @PeggyOlson

Apps: brightkit, @brightkit

Brand: Action Wipes, @MarthaVan

Business: Paw Luxury, @PawLuxury

Design: Yiying Lu, @yiyinglu

Education: RubyLearning, @RubyLearning

Entertainment: Flashlight Worthy Books, @FLWBooks

Finance: StockTwits, @StockTwits

Food: Foodimentary, @foodimentary

Green: Green Moms Carnival, @greenmoms

Health: Debra Wendler, @ADHDParenting

Humor: Charles Trippy, @charlestrippy

Music: Hunter Burgan, @tranquilmammoth

News: BNO News, @BreakingNewsOn

Nonprofits: Athletes for a Cure, @athletes4acure

Personal: Arleen Boyd, @AlohaArleen

Photography: Kyle Reese, @Twipphoto

Politics: Justin Hart, @justin_hart

Science: NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, @MarsPhoenix

Social Media: Dan Zarrella, @danzarrella

Sports: Jackie, @girlwithnoname

Startups: Hanniversary, @hanniversary

Tech: Twitter Tips, @Twitter_Tips

Travel: Cruise Source, @cruisesource

Video Games: Justin McElroy, @justinmcelroy

Weird: Martin Sargent, @martinsargent

Second Annual Awards

Voting for the second Shorty Awards opened on January 5, 2010, in 26 official categories. A Real-Time Photo of the Year category was added to the list of official categories for the first time, recognizing the best photo posted to services such as Twitpic, Yfrog, or Facebook.

The second Shorty Awards competition introduced a panel of judges called the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences whose members were Craig Newmark

Craig Newmark

Craig Alexander Newmark is an Internet entrepreneur best known for being the founder of the San Francisco-based international website Craigslist.-Biography:...

, David Pogue

David Pogue

David Welch Pogue is an American technology writer, technology columnist and commentator. He is a personal technology columnist for the New York Times, an Emmy-winning tech correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, weekly tech correspondent for CNBC, and a columnist for Scientific American...

, Kurt Andersen

Kurt Andersen

Kurt Andersen is an American novelist who is also host of the Peabody-winning public radio program Studio 360, a co-production between Public Radio International and WNYC. In 1986 with E. Graydon Carter he co-founded Spy magazine, which they sold in 1991; it continued publishing until 1998...

, Caterina Fake

Caterina Fake

Caterina Fake is an American businesswoman and internet entrepreneur.Fake was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall, attended Smith College, and graduated from Vassar College in 1991....

, Joi Ito

Joi Ito

is a Japanese activist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Director of the MIT Media Lab.Ito has received recognition for his role as an entrepreneur focused on Internet and technology companies and has founded, among other companies, PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. He maintains...

, Frank Moss (technologist)

Frank Moss (technologist)

Frank Moss is a researcher, technology and biotechnology entrepreneur, academician and author. Moss was the director of the MIT Media Lab from 2006 to 2011....

, Alberto Ibargüen

Alberto Ibargüen

Alberto Ibargüen is President and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, Florida. He is the former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald in Miami, Florida, and is chairman of the board of the World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee...

, Sreenath Sreenivasan

Sreenath Sreenivasan

Sreenath Sreenivasan – also known as Sree Sreenivasan – is an academic administrator, professor and technology journalist based in New York City....

, MC Hammer

MC Hammer

Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...

, Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Jayne Milano is an American actress and former singer, known for her childhood role as Samantha Micelli in the sitcom Who's the Boss? and an eight-year stint as Phoebe Halliwell on the series Charmed. She was also a series regular on the original Melrose Place portraying the role of...

 and Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....

. After public nominations determined the finalists, the Academy decided on the winners.

Winners were announced at a ceremony held in the Times Center in the New York Times building in Manhattan, and were streamed online. The ceremony was hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez

Rick Sanchez

Ricardo León "Rick" Sánchez de Reinaldo , known professionally as Rick Sanchez, is a Cuban-American journalist, author and former TV news anchor...

, who presented awards in the official categories as well as the newly-added Real-Time Photo of the Year and a special humanitarian award.

2010 Winners By Category

Advertising: Frank Adman, @FrankAdman

Apps: TweetDeck, @TweetDeck

Art: deviantART, @deviantART

Brand (Tie): Whole Foods, @WholeFoods

Brand (Tie): Sesame Street, @sesamestreet

Celebrity: Nathan Fillion, @NathanFillion

Cultural Institution (Tie): Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, @lewisginter

Cultural Institution (Tie): Reduced Shakespeare Company, @reduced

Design: Smashing Magazine, @smashingmag

Entertainment: True Blood HBO, @TrueBloodHBO

Finance: The Suze Orman Show, @SuzeOrmanShow

Food: Foodimentary, @Foodimentary

Government: Cory Booker, @CoryBooker

Health: Rachael Dunlop, @DrRachie

Humor (Tie): Mrs. Stephen Fry, @MrsStephenFry

Humor (Tie): David Thorne, @27bslash6

Innovation: Betty Draper, @BettyDraper

Literature: Arjun Basu, @arjunbasu

Journalist (Tie): William Bonner, @realwbonner

Journalist (Tie): Rachel Maddow, @maddow

Music (Tie): Ivete Sangalo, @ivetesangalo

Music (Tie): Ted Leo, @tedleo

News: The Diane Rehm Show, @drshow

Nonprofit: TWLOHA, @TWLOHA

Politics: The Nation, @thenation

Science: Jen Scheer, @flyingjenny

Sports: Bill Simmons, @sportsguy33

Tech: Soldier Knows Best, @SoldierKnowBest

Travel: Twitchhiker, @twitchhiker

Weird: The Llama, @DoWhatITellYou

Special Awards

Real-Time Photo of the Year: Janis Krums, @jkrums for "Plane on the Hudson"

Special Humanitarian Award: Carel Pedre, @carelpedre

Third Annual Awards

The nomination period for the third annual Shorty Awards opened in January, 2011, and ran through February 11, 2011, except for new categories that had extended nomination deadlines. There were 30 official categories, and five special categories. In addition to Real-Time Photo of the Year, for the first time the awards accepted nominations for Foursquare Mayor of the Year, Foursquare Location of the Year, Microblog of the Year on Tumblr, and a Connecting People award. The awards also introduced new Shorty Industry Awards to recognize the best uses of social media by brands and agencies. A Marketing Jury within the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences judges the Shorty Industry Awards and determines the winners from among the paid entries. All winners are scheduled to be announced at a ceremony on March 28, 2011, hosted by Aasif Mandvi

Aasif Mandvi

Aasif Hakim Mandviwala , known professionally as Aasif Mandvi , is an American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.-Early life and stage career:Mandvi...

 in the Times Center. Other scheduled Shorty Awards presenters include Kiefer Sutherland, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Stephen Wallem, Miss USA Rima Fakih, and Miss Teen USA Kamie Crawford.

2011 Winners By Category

Actor: Neil Patrick Harris, @ActuallyNPH

Actress: Stana Katic, @Stana_Katic

Apps: COLOURlovers, @colourlovers

Art: One Stop Poetry, @Onestoppoetry

Author (Tie): Shawn Stewart, @treatwomenright

Author (Tie): John Green, @realjohngreen

Celebrity: Kim Jae Joong, @mjjeje

Charity: The Trevor Project, @trevorproject

Cultural Institution (Tie): Tyneside Cinema, @tynesidecinema

Cultural Institution (Tie): Science Gallery, @ScienceGallery

Customer Service: Research In Motion, @BlackBerryHelp

Design: Codeorama, @Codeorama

Entertainment: Barney Stinson, @Broslife

Fashion: Ann Li, @thisisannli

Finance: Slow Money, @SlowMoney

Food: Epic Meal Time

Epic Meal Time

Epic Meal Time is a YouTube cooking show known for creating extremely high-calorie meals, generally out of meat products and including alcohol . It debuted in October 2010, and since then has started to release an episode every Tuesday. It is hosted by Harley Morenstein and a group of his friends...

, @epicmealtime

Gaming: Adam Montoya, @SeaNanners

Government: Cory Booker, @CoryBooker

Green: Mud Baron, @Cocoxochitl

Humor: The Dark Lord, @Lord_Voldemort7

Innovation: Rene Silva Santos, @Rene_Silva_RJ

Journalist: West Wing Report, @westwingreport

Music: The Jonas Brothers, @JonasBrothers

News (Tie): Lei Seca RJ, @LeiSecaRJ

News (Tie): The Young Turks, @TheYoungTurks

Nurse (Tie): Ronivin Pagtakhan, @ronnievinn

Nurse (Tie): Matthew Browning, @MatthewBrowning

Politics (Tie): Marina Silva, @silva_marina

Politics (Tie): The Bloggess, @TheBloggess

Science: MythBusters, @MythBusters

Social Media Expert: Facts About Boys, @FactsAboutBoys

Sports: New Orleans Saints, @Official_Saints

Tech: Soldier Knows Best, @SoldierKnowBest

Television (Tie): Attack of the Show, @aots

Television (Tie): Sesame Street, @sesamestreet

Travel: JD Andrews, @earthXplorer

Weird (Tie): Alli Speed

Weird (Tie): OMG I do this, too, @omgidothistoo

Special Awards

Connecting People: Shannon Miller, @shannonmmiller

Real-Time Photo of the Year: Douglas H. Wheelock, @Astro_Wheels for "Moon From Space"

Foursquare Location of the Year: SXSW

Foursquare Mayor of the Year: Baratunde Thurston @baratunde

Microblog of the Year on Tumblr: The Daily What

External links

• Official Shorty Awards Site
• First Annual Shorty Awards Site
• Second Annual Shorty Awards Site
• The Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences
• Sawhorse Media