The are presented at the Dragon*Con Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. The rules for this award are established as follows. Participants understand that these rules may be subject to clarification and change without prior notice.
One winner will be determined in each category to receive the Parsec Award trophy and the right to claim the title of Parsec Award winner in their category for that year.
We are going to nominate 5 podcasts in nine categories that exemplify podcasting excellence.
(Step 1) Call for general nominations:
This is done on the "The Parsec Awards: A Celebration of Speculative Fiction Podcasting at Dragon*Con 2007" web site at: http://parsecawards.com on the home page, or through nominations@parsecawards.com. Listeners may nominate their favorite podcasts and podcasters may nominate their own podcasts.
(Step 2) Inform nominees and request samples:
Each nominee will informed of their nomination and will be asked assemble a sample of their podcasts as follows:
(Step 3) Five finalists are determined for each category:
The Parsec Awards Steering Committee and their assignees (as selected by the committee) will determine a list of ten semi-finalists and then, in conference, will determine the list of five finalists in each category. Each podcast will be evaluated by a set of numerical ratings based on criteria specific to the nominated category. These ratings and criteria are to be published separately. Steering committee members and assignees in this process will be recused from any portion of this judging process involving podcasts with which they are associated or have contributed. All participants acknowledge that the awards process involves subjective judgment on the part of those making award determinations and that artistic merit and ranking is highly influenced by personal preference. Nevertheless, every effort will be made in the selection of finalists and awarding the winner to be as fair and objective as possible.
(Step 4) Selection of five finalist judges and announcement of nominees:
Finalists will be announced and the final award determination will be made by independent judges selected by the Steering Committee from outside of podcasting but with experience in related fields (literature, broadcast, etc.)Finalists will be announced and the final award determination will be made by independent judges selected by the Steering Committee from outside of podcasting but with experience in related fields (literature, broadcast, etc.)
(Step 5) Final Judges vote via secret ballot:
Voting is conducted by secret and secure means, which shall be explained at the time of the award ceremony. Winners will not be informed in advance and the presenters will have no foreknowledge of the outcome.
(Step 6) The Awards Ceremony:
The award will be presented at the Dragon*Con convention held in Atlanta, Georgia, in the country of the United States. Podcast producers need not be present to be awarded but will be asked to participate in the awards show if present.
Nominations accepted: June 1 - July 6.
Submissions will be due no later than midnight (PDST) on July 23th.
Samples will not be accepted after this deadline.
Finalists submitted to the celebrity judges by August 10th
Winner list received by committee by August 27th.
Dragon*Con 2007: Parsec Awards 2007 Ceremony on Saturday September 1st.
Podcasts to be considered for an award must meet the following criteria:
(1) No bias:
No one working or contributing to the podcast may have been involved in the selection process for that podcast in any way.
(2) Airdates:
Must have podcasted between May 1st of last year and April 31st of the current year.
(3) Must be a podcast:
The entry must have appeared as part of an RSS or similar syndication distribution system over the Internet and it must be provided free of charge.
(4) Series Eligibility:
For works of a syndicated nature (writing related podcast, fan podcast, news podcast), the nominee must have podcast at least 1 episode per month in the 6 months of the current year. These podcasts are eligible for nomination and judging each year they meet the award qualifications.
For podcasts of a non-syndicated nature (stories, audio drama: ex. podiobooks) these works can only be nominated and judged for a single Parsec Award Year. When the broadcast/distribution window of a non-syndicated work extends across two Parsec Award Years, the author may choose to opt-out of a nomination for the present award year in order to be eligible for nomination in the following year.
(5) Content:
All of the fiction nominees must include an element of Speculative Fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, horror), these categories are:
The non-speculative fiction and non-fiction nominees do not need to include elements of speculative fiction, these categories are:
(6) Original work when produced:
The submitted work must be the original work of the nominee or those associated with the production of the content.
(7) Content submitted must be published before deadline:
The content submitted for consideration must have aired and been publicly available within the Parsec Award Year. Remixing, re-editing or producing of new content for award consideration disqualifies the nominee. For purposes of award consideration, the submitted sample may be engineered with audio fade-in, fade-out or cross-fade but no additional enhancement to the originally presented work is allowed.
(8) Steering Committee member ineligibility:
Members of the Steering Committee do not make the final selection of award winners and are they, themselves ineligible to receive an award in any year in which they are members of the committee. Podcasts to which they have contributed are eligible for award but the board member must recuse themselves from any involvement in either the nomination or selection process.
