Okay, first off, this is incredibly humbling for me. I have been e-mailing folks over the past week to ask if they’d be willing to judge categories in the first-ever CICM online journalism contest. Here are the people who have agreed to serve as judges: #

• Matt Waite, St. Pete Times news technologist
• Richard Hernandez, multimedia specialist with S-J mercury-news
• Ryan Sholin, gatehouse media new media specialist
• David Cohn, newassignment.net editor
• Rob Curley washington post
• Will Sullivan (interactive director, st. louis post-dispatch)
• Angela Grant (videographer, san antonio express-news)
• Derek Willis, database editor, nytimes.com
• Joe Weiss, creator of Soundslides
• Jack Lail, online editor of knoxnews.com

That’s just the list so far. Quite frankly, it’s something of a list of my journalistic heroes. I’ve got e-mails out to a few other folks, and we’re waiting to hear from them. All of these people deserve a great round of thanks for their desire to encourage student journalists to innovate and reach for the future.
But for now, the deadline is fast approaching: Feb. 1. Your student media organization has to be a member to enter, and there are more details about the categories here. Please enter. I want student media journalists to be recognized for their multimedia, innovative work, and – for now – this is the only contest so far that really focuses on these efforts. Check here for more information about joining. #

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