My blogger of the year, by the way, is Nate Silver of http://www.fivethirtyeight.com -- that guy so completely nailed the election I can't think of anyone else who came stronger on the scene this year. - Robert Scoble

@scoble I'd have to agree... I was checking fivethirtyeight pretty regularly during the election cycle. And the openness of the methodology was great. - mikepk

Nate Silver is very good, and you're right he nailed the election. But his blog is his profession, and to me that's not what I want to shine the focus on. To me the unsung heroes of the blogging world are the ones who pour themselves personally into the blog and is not their livelihood. Interestingly the thing that attracts this years winner to me is not so much what he does on his blog, rather what he does on Twitter. :-) - Dave Winer

My Blogger of the Year is Robert Scoble. Darren Rowse comes in a close second, then Chris Brogan. They're all preeminent professional bloggers. - J. D. Ebberly

Hmm, well, now that is interesting. In that case, I'm thinking Jay Rosen. He's been doing damn interesting Twittering for me all year long. His Twitter stream is here: http://twitter.com/jayrose... - Robert Scoble

+1 for Nate Silver. - Rachel Luxemburg

J. D., I'm very honored but my blog has sucked this year. Now, if there were a FriendFeed award... - Robert Scoble

i agree with @dave's take on the blogging thing: a blog should just be a convenient (and rich) outlet for a fertile, curious mind, interested in any topic, from the incredible to the mundane. but if you're a "professional" blogger, you're really a new kind of pro writer,and if that's your thing, then it would be a reasonable expectation that you write well and tell good stories: after all, that's what writers do. - .LAG liked that

I was certain you were talking about Loren Feldman, right until Bloggercon. As with Robert, I'm stumped now :( - Matt Frog

LAG -- that's not exactly how I look at it -- I think everyone should name a Blogger of the Year, and acknowledge whoever it is that does what matters most to them. There are *lots* of great bloggers, imho. - Dave Winer

My vote is for Louis Gray. I really enjoyed his posts this year. - Dave Hodson

Louis smokes? If so, makes me feel better about doing it! - Matt Frog

Dave: Louis wasn't at the first BloggerCon, which is why I know it's not Louis (who is a runner up for me, if only for the fact that he got me onto FriendFeed this year). But I'm certain it is Jay Rosen now that I think about it. I'd be willing to bet on that. - Robert Scoble

He smokes?! - Mona Nomura

Mona: I'm pretty sure that Jay Rosen smokes, yes. I'm almost certain I saw him doing that at Personal Democracy Forum this year. I sure hope I'm not wrong. - Robert Scoble

So an honest question, in your internal definition of a blogger, they must be an amateur? (and amateur in the best sense of the word, root word = love kind of way). Should we consider some other classification for "pros", or are they just professional writers? Clearly the medium is different, even for the pros. - mikepk

Oh, oops - I wrote that at the same time you were posting and thought it was LG that smoked! <small>I do not know who Jay Rosen is... Does he FriendFeed? :)</small voice> - Mona Nomura

Mona: here is Jay's Twitter account. I'm pretty sure his account is on FriendFeed too. Will look for that. http://twitter.com/jayrose... - Robert Scoble

Here's Jay's FriendFeed account: http://friendfeed.com/jayrosen - Robert Scoble

Loren Feldman isn't a blogger, imho -- he's an actor, sort of like Don Rickles or Jackie Mason, but not as funny. - Dave Winer

Louis does not smoke. Louis is not blogger of the year. :-) - Louis Gray

Thanks for the link, Robert. (It's Twitter vomit!) - Mona Nomura

I also thought it was Jay Rosen, especially since Dave and Jay did that video conversation recently. Jay is my #1 person to follow here on FF and on Twitter this year as well. His blog post before the Convention nailed the upcoming McCain strategy to the T. - Bora Zivkovic

Bora: I just looked through everyone Dave's following on Twitter and I don't see anyone else it could be. Plus, I follow quite a few more than Dave does and I don't have a good alternate to suggest. - Robert Scoble

@dave... thanks for the clarification. well, I guess i agree with half of your comment then: the part about professional. i mean, if you're a pro -- at anything -- you should do pro-level work. that's my expectation. but, to me, that's not enough to make one 'blogger of the year.' to me, that's more about about bringing passion, energy and a unique or peculiar insight to whatever topic interests the blogger in question. i don't think you have to be a pro to be a great blogger, or a blogger of the year. - .LAG liked that

Everything I know about the state of journalism I learned from Jay. If it's him, and I also can't think of an alternative, it is well deserved. - Bora Zivkovic

So out of 100,000,000 bloggers and Twitterers there's no one better than Jay? - Robert Scoble

I'd pick Kara Swisher. Old school media but transitioned right and knocks the socks off ANY "A list blogger" in terms of cred. Nobody in the biz picks any blog over hers for coverage, she speaks and moderates the very best events, people, highly respected, etc. - and she's a woman. - Patricia

Patricia: I like Kara's blog too. She's certainly in the top 10 news reporters, but if we consider pros then Nate Silver did far more profound work this year. - Robert Scoble

@Robert, you're in my top 10 for sure. As I've said before, despite all you know and have access to, you're a rare mind willing to be open to what you maybe didn't know an hour ago, didn't see a minute ago, etc. and you are always willing to explore other people's thinking, which is honestly what a good leader/voice should be. In the SV, that's rare. I'm a fan :) - Patricia

Patricia, thanks, I'm honored. - Robert Scoble

@Robert, yeah! in part your view of china has made some friends and i think about going there to document the problem of polution there. heard that many cities can't see the sun most days from it. we're exploring securing a corporate grant for feb to do it. - Patricia

Patricia: start in Beijing, which supposedly is the worst of the Chinese cities in terms of pollution. - Robert Scoble

I thought Dr. Horrible had a pretty good blog this year. - Jesse Stay

I'm still shocked that there isn't much discussion about this topic anymore. I guess Dave should have titled it "Twitterer of the year." - Robert Scoble

@scoble... and the nominations are...? - .LAG liked that

I wanted to add Michael Arrington and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga to the list. They are the leaders in their respective categories, and Markos' team won an election this year. (Bump) - Louis Gray

Yes, we need categories. There are far too many bloggers to only choose one. - Internet Strategist