Campaign Video: Vote for Kevin (and help him spend $10k wisely)

Published on 10/9/2007 in Academia, Blogging, Media, Personal and Videos. View Comments

Since this opportunity is hard to pass up, I thought I start a narcissistic campaign for the hell of it…

I’ve started a Facebook group called “Vote Kevin for $10k blog scholarship, then help him spend it!“, to campaign for presidency votes to win the $10,000 college blogger scholarship.

On the Facebook group, I’ve even added a pseudo media kit consisting of photos you can use to create fake campaign posters / flyers (if you’re so inclined).

Interestingly, there are even testimonials made by fellow bloggers, such as…
- Alex Halavais’ uber-serious “I hereby endorse…“. He’s been the most interesting academic advisor I’ve ever had!
- Elia Diodati’s (acidflask) “Help feed Kevin” with silly reasons why you should vote me (he clearly indulges in self-pity)
- Priscilla Tan who says that you should help save this male cheerleader (hee hee!)
- Ivan the Rambling Librarian noted how the other bloggers write better than me but he likes how I embody openness and social engagement on the net.
- Siva (Otterman) who’s suggests doing a kind gesture, even though I’ve only garnered 1-2% of the collective votes.
- The Digital Movement’s massive plug with “SG tech blogger Kevin Lim makes waves in the States!“.

There are also friendly referrals from folks I recently got to know, like Brian “Harmless? Bananas!” Koh who explains why he bothers to read this blog, the(new)mediaslut who intends to help me get $10k (but can’t spell my name right, hee hee!), as well as the folks at The Singapore Daily national aggregator rooting for me.

To top this off, I’ve just created a fake public service announcement (PSA) video as seen above, explaining why you should vote for me and what you could expect if I win. Here’s the byline which goes with the video:

Vote for Kevin Lim for a college blogger scholarship
Having been selected as a top 20 college blogger, it all depends on you casting your vote to make winning $10,000 a reality.

If Kevin wins, he’ll invite friends to help him decide what to do with it. He’s crowdsourcing for ideas to use the money wisely, be it for a worthy cause (e.g. Saving Burma, Creative Commons, Space travel for all, etc) or to grow the capital (e.g. investing in a startup, high-yield savings account, etc).

Sounds fun? Cast your vote here.

Now I’m actually up against stiff competition. At the break of Tuesday (12.30am EST), here are the standings ranked by votes:

  1. Jess Kim (1066)
  2. Grant Brisbee (816)
  3. Shelley Batts (664)
  4. Kimberley Klein (658)
  5. Paul Stamatiou (440)
  6. Matthew Burden (375)
  7. Thomas Peters (231)
  8. Randall Booth (221)
  9. Shane Lavalette (149)
  10. Karin Dalziel (112)
  11. Travis Addington (110)
  12. Kevin Lim* (106)
  13. Chris Clark (66)
  14. Amanda Kern (61)
  15. Stephanie Collins (57)
  16. Kambiz Kamrani (48)
  17. Samuel Arbesman (10)
  18. Liz Funk (8)
  19. Sean Clark (7)
  20. Anders Ibsen (6)

Being at 12th place isn’t shabby really. Thanks to everyone who voted. I know some of you have problems casting your votes as the system may seem wonky, but don’t fret. The most important thing here is to play the game as it is. These are really mighty academic bloggers, I’m honored enough just to make the list! Sorry to friends and foes who didn’t make it. Drinks for all!

College Scholarship Finalist Button Before you go, how do you think I could garner the most votes?

Get down and dirty by offering iPods to a random voters?
Or do good by choosing a beneficiary / charity?

I’d like to hear your bright idea on how you’d best use this cash.

Update 1: It now on tomorrow.sg too!

Update 2: My friend Anggra found a news article talking about this on AsiaOne News.





  • Tony See
    Hey Kevin, I gave you my vote, just tell your father in Shanghai that he owes me a lunch. Haha. Wish you all the best! Cheers!

    PS: really got ipods etc. for voting? :-0
  • Lynda Lim
    Voted for you already...tonight I'll get Miso and Mazer to vote. :)
  • Wayne
    I voted for you & good luck Kevin!
  • @All: Good thoughts guys! :)

    @Stephanie: Heck, just do it. We're in the losers pool, so let's take it as far as we can :P
  • Hi Kevin, I voted for you not because you have a video. Not because you have a Facebook presence. Not because you're from Singapore. Not because you're the underdog.

    I voted for you because I think you deserve the $10K scholarship and will make good use of it. For yourself and yes, I believe eventually for the larger good. So good luck.
  • Yeah e.g. buying MarsEdit for November who is conducting a workshop for nature bloggers and getting them to do environmental blogging as homework!

    Hmm..MarEdit (some Ecto since its in Windws as well) prizes for bloggers to be in countries with a poorer technological reach. You do have the network and the know-how to do it.
  • #15 here, checking out the competition! You wouldn't mind if I got into a playful campaign war with you, would you? Making a campaign video seems like a lot of fun!

    Honestly, if you win, I would want you to put the money straight into your education. Of course, this might free up some other money in other areas... but as a personal finance blogger, I would have to suggest you invest that extra money that you free up!
  • from a public relations standpoint, you need to align yourself with a social cause and donate a certain percentage of your scholarship to that social cause. -) perhaps an education fund to teach proper blogging techniques or ethics?

    *note i am only half joking.. -)
  • @Otterman: Easy, I'm imitating those National Day ministerial addresses on TV. :P
  • How did you keep a straight face during that video?!
  • This is a college student thing, for goodness sakes, keep the money, spend it to further yourself and get tools like Mailplane and MarsEdit!

    Contribute to charity with your invaluable efforts; help them milk the really loaded for the good stuff. Think about giving significantly when you start earning. By then you'll know the ground and how to help effectively (e.g. in Singapore lots of small see the well dry up during the months when something major like the Presiden't Star Charity takes to the road; you can help buffer them out in future).

    if the competition is stiff, use the opportunity to exercise your imagination and mobilise all the tools you can think of. Study your reach ability - may as well try this now so in a crisis (like the Indian Ocean tsunami) you'd be a well oiled machine.

    I've voted, twittered, emailed and blogged. Your kakis and readers will support you for the heck of it, let them earn some good karma especially the non-commenting parasites!

    Have fun with it.

    Those other blogs (the ones I've looked at so far) are really good! Discovering them was a bonus of this exercise. Collectively they provide a super rebuttal to the infantile argument "blogs are bad, print is good."
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