In the last year, new gadgets, websites, films, books, podcasts, and blogs have surfaced while others have improved. In fact, more than 1,000 films and 400,000 books were released in 2008. As for the Web, more than 124 billion websites now exist and nearly 174,000 new domains are created every 24 hours. Bloggers are posting 900,000 new blog posts daily and more than 571,809 podcast feeds are in existence. With so much new media and technology at our disposal, it’s difficult to know where to start in this media jungle. This is where you come in. We wanted to know what you, the COLLIDE readers, enjoyed listening to, watching, reading, using, etc. in the year that was, so we created the COLLIDE Reader’s Choice Awards. In November, we sent out a survey to all of our subscribers, bloggers, and Twitter friends and asked you to vote for this year’s Best of 2008. Your voice was heard and now it’s time for us to reveal the results. Remember, the winners reflect your choices, and not necessarily ours. If your personal picks didn’t win or even get nomination, don’t fret – there’s always next year.
Best Film: The Dark Knight
thedarkknight.warnerbros.com
The summer’s most highly anticipated blockbuster dominated this year’s Best Film category. With Heath Ledger’s remarkably chilling performance, it’s no wonder The Dark Knight has shattered box office records, such as midnight showing, opening day, opening weekend, and IMAX, and is also the second highest grossing domestic film of all time at $530 million in sales (not to mention it’s $996 million total worldwide). Now we wait to see how many Oscars are in store for The Dark Knight.
Nominees:
Burn After Reading
Cloverfield
Get Smart
Hancock
Iron Man
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
There Will Be Blood
Wall-E
Best Church Media Producer: NOOMA
www.nooma.com
In a growing, competitive market, Nooma takes the title for Best Church Media Producer for the second year in a row. Whether it’s the relevant content, superb production quality, compelling stories, cheap $12 price tag, Zondervan distribution, or just Rob Bell’s hip factor, it’s no wonder Nooma continues its dominance. But watch out Nooma, our reader poll shows Igniter Media right on your tail.
Nominees:
BlueFishTV
Central Christian Church
Floodgate Productions
FortyOneTwenty
Igniter Media
Media Fuel
Shift Worship
The Work of the People
WorshipFilms
Best Church Media Short Film: Welcome to Our Church (Floodgate Productions)
www.floodgateproductions.com
Despite a close race and a few lead changes, “Welcome to Our Church” came out on top in the end. “Welcome to Our Church” is an energetic video for churches looking to clearly articulate who they are and what they’re about. Honorable mention goes to FortyOneTwenty’s “Through the Storm,” which came in a close second.
Nominees:
Coffee with Jesus (MediaFuel)
Flying Solo (Central Christian Church)
Stool (onetimeblind)
The Day is Near (The Work of the People)
The Point (Floodgate Productions)
Through the Storm (FortyOneTwenty)
Best Presentation Software: ProPresenter
www.renewedvision.com
With 43% of your votes, ProPresenter is your choice for Best Presentation Software. ProPresenter, which exclusively runs on Apple computers, offers quality video playback, HD support, easy lyric import, and support for live video. PC users have several presentation software options to choose from, so perhaps the more limited Apple landscape makes it easy for ProPresenter to make a name for itself.
Nominees:
EasyWorship
Keynote
MediaShout
PowerPoint
SongShowPlus
Sunday Plus
Best Networking Tool: Facebook
www.facebook.com
With more than 150 milllion active users, Facebook has finally surpassed MySpace as the most-trafficked social networking site in the world. Whether it’s signing up, finding friends, joining groups, sharing photos, chatting, or just wasting time, Facebook makes it easy (and addictive, apparently). Though Twitter came in second place, its 540,000 users will never be able to compete with Facebook.
Nominees:
Gospelr
LinkedIn
Ning
MySpace
Roov
Twitter
Best Video Website: YouTube
www.youtube.com
Clearly, YouTube is the most well-known and successful video-sharing site around. Since launching in November 2005, YouTube has become an unstoppable force on the Web and even passed up Yahoo! to become the second most popular search engine in the world. With millions of videos and billions of pageviews, YouTube is #1 in web video. However, the one-year-old Vimeo is taking great strides to overtake YouTube, at least in popularity among our readers.
Nominees:
FunnyOrDie
GodTube
MySpace Video
Vimeo
Best Book: Pop Goes the Church
www.popgoesthechurch.com
Tim Stevens’ book, Pop Goes the Church, dominated the Best Media/Culture book category this year. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Pop Goes the Church was the cover story in the May/June issue of COLLIDE, or maybe it’s because it takes an in-depth look at how the Church should engage pop culture. Either way, our readers supported Stevens’ book in force.
Nominees:
Branding Faith – Phil Cooke
Culture Making – Andy Crouch
Graphic Design and Religion – Daniel Kantor
Into the Dark – Craig Detweiler
Best Ministry Blog: Church Marketing Sucks
www.churchmarketingsucks.com
Easily our most competitive category, Church Marketing Sucks takes the cake for a second year in a row. Brad Abare and the gang continue to offer great insight for ministries, a plethora of resources (Church Marketing Lab, Job Lab, Freelance Lab, etc.), and a strong user community. In other words, Church Marketing Sucks doesn’t suck.
Nominees:
Catalyst Catablog
ChurchRelevance
Digital @ Leadership Network
Evotional.com (Mark Batterson)
Monday Morning Insight (Todd Rhoades)
FlowerDust.net (Anne Jackson)
Ragamuffin Soul (Carlos Whittaker)
Swerve (LifeChurch.tv)
Best Faith/Arts/Media/Design Blog: Already Been Chewed
www.alreadybeenchewed.net
Our friend and co-worker, Barton Damer, is new to the blogosphere and is your choice for Best Faith/Arts/Media/Design Blog. Only three months old, AlreadyBeenChewed.net has seen a huge jump in readers. On the blog, Barton shares his artistic expertise, inspiration, tutorials, and other creative outlets. And he often reminds us that he likes skateboarding.
Nominees:
AVclub.us (Ken Wilson)
Church Video Ideas (Greg Atkinson)
Joshua Blankenship
The Change Revolution (Phil Cooke)
The Digital Sanctuary (Cynthia Ware)
VisualWorshiper.com (Camron Ware)
Best Faith and Pop Culture Blog: Stuff Christians Like
www.stuffchristianslike.net
It looks like Christians really like Stuff Christians Like. This little blog started off with Jon Acuff chronicling his own Christian culture experiences in a sarcastic, fun manner for some friends and quickly spread like wildfire. Why? Because it’s hilarious and true. Also, be on the lookout for a book coming out this year from Zondervan full of Stuff Christians Like.
Nominees:
Christ and Pop Culture
Jesus Needs New PR (Matthew Paul Turner)
Leading Smart (Tim Stevens)
Looking Closer Journal (Jeffrey Overstreet)
Still Searching (Brett McCracken)
ThinkChristian
Best Tech Blog: Wired News
www.wired.com
Wired News edged out Engadget this year to become the Best Tech Blog. It probably has to do with their strong print and web presence, professional writing style, and lack of rumors. Last year’s winner, Engadget, came in a close second but will always be first in our hearts.
Nominees:
Ars Technica
Engadget
Gizmodo
Mashable
TechCrunch
Best Blogging Platform: WordPress
www.wordpress.com
WordPress dethroned Blogger in this year’s Reader’s Choice Awards to become the Best Blogging Platform. Perhaps it’s because of its simple usability, aesthetics, customizable format, or the ample amount of plug-ins. But don’t think this battle is over with yet—Blogger still boasts a large, loyal fan base.
Nominees:
Blogger
Drupal
Movable Type
Tumblr
TypePad
Best Sermon Podcast: North Point Ministries (Andy Stanley)
www.northpoint.org
Despite a large number of you writing in your own church’s podcast, the award for Best Sermon Podcast goes to North Point Ministries, located in Alpharetta, GA. North Point Community Church, lead by Andy Stanley, draws in more than 23,000 people each week to its three campuses.
Nominees:
Desiring God (John Piper)
Mars Hill Bible Church (Rob Bell)
Mars Hill Church (Mark Driscoll)
Mosaic (Erwin McManus)
Village Church (Matt Chandler)
Best Tech Podcast: Church Media Design
www.churchmediadesign.tv
Hosted by creative media guru, Brad Zimmerman, the Church Media Design video podcast offers a broad range of tutorials, from beginners to experts, on all things media and design. The average podcast runs less than 30 minutes, and the knowledge and insight is well worth your time.
Nominees:
Church Tech Talk
CNET
DiggNation
GeekBrief.tv
G4
Tekzilla
Best RSS Feed Reader: Google Reader
www.google.com/reader
When Google is in a competition, it tends to dominate, and this year’s Best RSS Feed Reader category is no exception. Google Reader allows anyone with a Google account to subscribe to RSS feeds and access them anywhere they have an Internet connection. No matter who you voted for in this category, we’d encourage you to subscribe to the COLLIDE blog’s RSS feed.
Nominees:
Apple Mail
Bloglines
NetNewsWire