View of Quinn Creek Bridge (in Fayette County) from a distance. Photo taken by James Baughn.
As we wrap up the 2013 Ammann and Smith Awards, the author of the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles would like to make a few announcements regarding some changes and other items that will be brand new to the online column for this year. We’ll start off with the Ammann Awards:
Author’s Choice Award or Bridge Bowl?
After receiving an enormous amount of entries this year and having some issues with the voting ballot, the Chronicles will be making some changes in terms of the structure as well as the voting process. Apart from including the category of Tour Guide Award and changing the name of Smith’s Award to Author’s Choice Awards, the dates of the Awards will also change to a certain degree.
While the number of entries for the respective categories will not be limited nor will the deadline for entries be changed, the voting deadline will be pushed back to January 6th, the Day of Epiphany for the 2014 Awards and beyond. That means entries will be accepted throughout November, but you will have a chance to vote on the bridges and/or pontist through Christmas and New Year, so that you have a chance to have a look at the candidates in each category carefully before voting. The changes have already been made in the Ammann Awards page of the Chronicles, which you can see on bar in the home page.
In addition to that, the voting process will change in time for the 2014 Awards. This means that there will be more embrace in 2.0 technology and social networks, enabling voters to interact and vote more quickly and efficiently. This includes (but is not limited to) the usage of facebook, linkedIn and Pininterest, creating videos of the bridge candidates through YouTube and Go Animate to be made available on the ballot, including the ballot on this blog, and making the ballot in Word format more user friendly. In short, more options to vote will mean more participation and less complication. By the time the Awards starts up again in November, a new and improved voting process will take shape. Other suggestions can be brought up either in the comment section or via e-mail.
New RSS Feed
The Chronicles now has a new RSS feed, so that you can subscribe to the page and read it wherever you go. Just click on the orange symbol under Subscription Options and you can receive the page on any computer device. You can also receive an e-mail subscription of the Chronicles. Just click on the envelop symbol in the options and follow the instructions on how to obtain the articles via e-mail. Both RSS feeds are courtesy of FeedBurner, which cooperates with Yahoo and other engines. Other Subscription option symbols will be added in the next weeks, including that of flickr, PinInterest, Google+, LinkedIn, and others. Even the podcast of the Chronicles is being considered for experimental purposes. More information to come as some changes are made there.
New Stuff from the Chronicles:
While it has been experimented, the Chronicles will have more features for you to look at as you read along. For instance, a Glossary page has been set up, which will feature words associated with historic bridges and preservation practices and policies. While it is based on the Preservation ABCs, provided by Preservation in Pink, we will not be going in alphabetical order, but the words will be presented at random and through articles with some examples. While the author has some words to add to the Glossary via articles, you can also help. If you have some words to add to the Glossary, please submit them via e-mail with some examples to help, and they will be posted.
Also new will be the Bridge Tour Page, where articles about regions with a high concentration of bridges will be added, to provide you with an opportunity to plan your trip around visiting these bridges. As you saw in the 2013 Ammann Awards, there are plenty of places to see where you can photograph their bridges in a few hours’ time and still have fun at the beach or hiking in the woods. The Tour page will include regions once populated with historic bridges but are more or less gone- the “Lost Bridges” Tour page. If you know of regions in that category, write to the Chronicles about it and it will be added- along with the pictures, of course. Individual Success Stories and Book/Media of the Month will remain as well.
Writers wanted!
The Bridgehunter’s Chronicles is looking for a few volunteer writers to write about the topics already mentioned here. If you would like to be a Guest Writer and write about some of your bridge topics, please contact Jason Smith at the Chronicles at flensburg.bridgehunter.av@googlemail.com. There’s no obligation as to how often you should write, just as long as the topics you write about are interesting to the readers. Advantage: you can put in your resumé that you did some writing on the side as a way of enhancing your career chances in the fields of journalism, history and preservation.
Run-Off Vote due at Midnight!
To round things off, a reminder that the run-off vote for the Smith’s Awards for Spectacular Bridge Disasters will end this evening at 12:00am Central Time or 7:00am Berlin Time. The winner will be announced tomorrow. The candidates once again are the following:
CANDIDATE 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugaVS4615P8
CANDIDATE 2: http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2013/06/10/what-to-do-with-a-hb-the-newcastle-bridge/
CANDIDATE 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLVKb1HxhAY
Submit your votes via e-mail or on the Chronicles’ facebook page. The winner will be announced via Chronicles tomorrow during the course of the day.