First, an apology. It’s come to our attention that a number of people whom we wanted very badly to attend our Blogging Idol wrap party didn’t receive our invitation. I’ll look into how this happened, and if it somehow turns out to be my fault, we shall never speak of it again.

The results of this year’s judging were as close as possible, with the overall winner shaving past second place by a single point out of 100. Only five points separated first and third.

The prizes were awarded last night at Paupers in downtown Toronto.

Ron Van Holst took the prize for Community Building, topping a tightly contested category.

Kevin Pashuk (still tirelessly contributing to the blog) won for Editorial Quality.

And the overall winner in the fourth annual Blogging Idol competition was also the winner of our inaugural contest: Don Sheppard. (Don also won last year in the Community Building category.)

Many thanks to our judges, Chris Lau (last year’s overall winner) and Maggie Fox, founder of Social Media Group.

At Paupers last night, we discussed how to make Blogging Idol a year-round phenomenon rather than just a six-week contest, and one thing became clear: Blogging Idol is a collaborative, not a competitive, project. We’re planning to create some kind of online discussion about what BI should look like going forward, something I’d also like to discuss at regular get-togethers throughout the year.  We’ll keep you posted in this space.

Thanks to all for participating.