"The Perfect Internet Tech Award Does Not Exi..." Make one!

Democracy is defined by Merriam Webster as "an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights." At Hacker Noon, we don't take that definition lightly.

Nope, we mean it.

In fact, if there is one thing that was missing from Noonies 2020, it was the community input regarding the titles of the awards that should be given out. This is why this year, the Hacker Noon team won't be the only one making the decisions.

You deserve a word in this too.

After all, why wouldn't you be included? Hacker Noon's community is one of the most enthusiastic , innovative, and eager to share communities out there.

And, in case you didn’t know, the Noonies are the greenest, most democra-tech awards on the Internet.

How Does One Participate?

1. Decide what Noonie award you think should exist!
2. Fill in this form. (If you can’t access the form please email [email protected])
3. Spread the word! And use the official #Noonies2021 Hashtag!

The deadline for submitting titles is October 26, 2021!

Here are some samples of this year’s award titles AND descriptions:

Cheeky Genius of the Year

This prestigious award is intended to celebrate the geniuses too laz-pardon me, intelligent, to deal with everyday life in a mediocre way. Have you, someone you know, or heard of, created an amazing life hack? This is the award for them.

Rick Sanchez of the Year

This prestigious award is intended to acknowledge the seemingly fine line between madness and brilliance. Sometimes having a perspective or drive that is outside the norm can be taunted and questioned. But surpassing these challenges and creating something useful, brilliant, awesome, or just genuinely hilarious is a winning way to be. Congratulations stranger, may you always be bold and quirky.

Noonies are due to launch next week! Get ready to nominate some amazing online people and cast your votes! See ya around the Internet!

If you’re interested in learning more about Noonies please continue reading.

Why Does the Internet Need Noonies?

Because it's time.

It’s time for the tech-savvy community to finally experience a tech awards ‘ceremony’ done right.

This democra-tech appreciation of talent means we can acknowledge you, the Quirky Crypto Dance Party Thrower, and you, Mr. Rocket Engineer, and you, Ms. Algorithm Writer. We’re looking at all of you, and giving you the chance to win, hard.

(This differs from our Startups of the Year Awards, which acknowledges the accomplishments of tech businesses, rather than individuals.)

The Noonie Award Categories

Decentralization Awards

We've all heard the saying, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

We've seen corruption within governments, within the stock market, and within individual companies and organizations. One possible answer to corruption at the top is to decentralize power and decentralize governance itself.

This is what the movement and idea of decentralization aim to achieve.

Be it cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, or decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), there are many developers, entrepreneurs, and companies working hard to create the technology that makes decentralization possible.

This award category honors those individuals and organizations contributing toward a decentralized world, as well as the writers shining a spotlight on decentralization today.

Gaming [NEW!!]

As one of the world's fastest-growing industries, the video game industry is bigger than both the film and music industries combined.

Yes, they called us losers. Yes, they told us we'd forever live in our mother's basements. But look who's laughing now!

In 2021, you can literally make a living by playing video games and streaming your gameplay on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, and more. A single hit video game can turn a development studio no one's ever heard of into a household name in the gaming community.

This year alone we saw numerous breakout hits like Among Us and Fall Guys take streaming platforms and social media by storm.

Throughout the pandemic, we saw Triple-A studios provide us with the escape we needed in games like Call of Duty: Warzone, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the long-awaited Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

To give recognition to the hard-working game developers and studios out there that are bringing us the games we love, the games we need, and the games that take our breath away, we've added Gaming as a category to this year's Noonies Technology Awards.

Please see the awards below, nominate, and vote for the devs you're most thankful for and the devs you respect the most!

Internet Heroes Awards

One of the most significant triumphs of the intricate and fascinating world of the internet is that extraordinary talent, kindness, and perseverance have the chance to shine.

No matter what circumstances life dealt you, no matter how harsh your situation has been, the internet creates a possibility for you to reach out to the world.

Talent lives in people from different nations, backgrounds, genders, predispositions, etc.,  and the connected online community demonstrates what passionate people working in unison can do for the progress of humanity.

It’s truly unifying to know that we can -not only- all collaborate in passion, but also, celebrate incredible feats together. It’s an unbelievably beautiful thing.

In this category, we're looking forward to celebrating the thinkers, makers, movers, and shakers who made the internet (and thus, the whole world) a better place to live, especially in "the new normal.”

We love you all, and thank you for your ideas, dedication, kindness, and motivation to pursue and your talents for the ultimate sake of building a better universe.

Planet Internet Awards

The planet of the Internet is an incredibly captivating albeit strange ‘place.’

The collection of what makes up the world wide webster is really just a reflection of what is out there in the minds of global citizens.

And look, we’re not going to lie, it gets pretty wild out there.  The internet isn’t perfect...Neither are you.  The imperfections and quirks are a natural bioproduct of the human experience.

However, in the pursuit of truth, collaboration, progress, and creativity, hopefully, the good and reasonable of the initiatives will persevere. After all, more of us are kind and decent, otherwise, societies would fall apart.

Here’s to celebrating the superstars driving the internet into a promising, interesting, dynamic, democta-tech, and fun direction while really embracing the awesome side of the human psyche.

When selecting people for this category think to yourself, if the Internet had Nobel Prize awards, who would you nominate?

Who are the true internet artists of our time? Who hosts the best podcasts, writes the best newsletters, and generally helps make the internet a worthwhile place to spend time?

Nominate them.

Software Development Awards

In the 80's and 90's our parents told us to become doctors, lawyers, accountants. But in 2021, more and more parents are recommending their kids to learn programming and more and more schools are teaching coding to kids at an earlier age.

Tech is both the future and the road that will get us there. Be it the streetlight that tells you when to cross the road or the video call software that allows you to keep in touch with family halfway across the world, we need talented software developers to program the tools and apps that help us function in our daily lives.

Software developers are among the highest-paid staff at any tech company and for good reason: if your software sucks it doesn't matter how well your team can market it.

Thus, we'd be remiss if we didn't have a separate category in this year’s Noonies awards honoring the software developers, product managers, and teams that have made the software that improves our home lives and work lives on a daily basis.

Technology Awards

From the touchscreen phones in our pockets and the planes that soar above the clouds to the social media platforms we procrastinate on, the ability to make tools is what separates us from other animals and allowed our species to survive and evolve over the course of millions of years.

Britannica defines technology as "The application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation of the human environment." And by that definition, the Nintendo Gameboy is just as much a piece of technology as the common hammer.

Be it artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cryptocurrency, or blockchain, we've seen an incredible number of groundbreaking technological advancements in the past decade. The Noonies Technology Awards category honors all those engineers, developers, entrepreneurs, and tech writers who make the industry what it is today.

This story was written by Katarina Andrejević, Limarc Ambalina, and Ellen Stevens. Graphics were produced by Kien Dao.